The World Health Organisation (WHO)-led COVAX facility has made its second of four Caribbean vaccine shipments this week as The Bahamas received its first tranche of AstraZeneca shots.

Arriving safely in Nassau, COVAX delivered 33,600 doses today (March 30), boosting the commonwealth’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

On hand to receive the increasingly scarce drug was Prime Minister Hubert Minnis and other technocrats wider government and health ministry.

For his part, Prime Minister Minnis welcomed the instalment, adding that unlike other iterations of the coronavirus vaccine, the AstraZeneca booster makes no demand for extremely frigid conditions with regards to storage.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine does not require ultracold storage like some of the other COVID-19 vaccines and because of this, they are easier to transport in cold boxes to our family islands, resident facilities and inner-city communities. This allows us to increase our access to the vaccine and equitable distribution,” he explained.

Minnis stressed that vaccines approved for The Bahamas must pass certification through the WHO pre-qualification process and that widescale inoculation is one of the key methods to half the spread of COVID-19.

The batch represents the first instalment of the 100,800 pre-paid vaccines secured through the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) Revolving Fund.

Counting the 20,000 AstraZeneca doses donated by the Government of India earlier in March, the Bahamas has received a total of 53,600 vaccines.

Since the COVID-19 inoculation programme began on 14 March, more than 7,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered on New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The Bahamas now joins Jamaica, Suriname and Guyana as the four Caribbean countries to receive shipments through the COVAX Facility.