Donation preceded by Mottley’s letter to Indian Prime Minister

India has agreed to give Barbados 100,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who made the announcement yesterday (February 2), said the gesture was preceded by a letter she wrote to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, approximately two weeks ago.

The announcement of India’s COVID-19 vaccine donation was made during an address to the nation on the eve of a February 3-17 lockdown imposed by the Mottley administration.

The Bajan prime minister told the nation that the logistics were being worked out to get the vaccines to the island “in short order”. However, she did not give a specific timeline when this will be done.

In her letter to the Indian prime minister, Mottley advised him that Barbados is facing a peculiarly difficult moment and that the people of the Caribbean island would wish to have both the donation and purchase of vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca, which is being manufactured in India.

In her address to the nation, Mottley remarked: “Let me at the outset first and foremost thank the Government of India and Prime Minister Modi… . We have had commitments from the Government of India and we expect to receive very shortly the first supply for 50,000 persons which will be 100,000 vaccines.”

Deployment of vaccines

She added that, “we hope to be able to start the deployment of that in the very near future”.

Mottley reported that the logistics of the arrangements were being finalised and more details would be given as the process moved forward.

As part of its distribution plan, frontline workers will be vaccinated first, along with the elderly and those in the population considered vulnerable.

According to Mottley: “We have given a commitment and Cabinet has agreed that the first beneficiaries must be the frontline workers.”

She noted that those in critical medical care, police and national security forces, and critical essential services that keep the country going would be included.

She made the point that those first 50,000 vaccines can also reach the elderly and the most vulnerable, indicating that she has asked the hospital and the Ministry of Health, through its polyclinics, to identify those “those persons, with multiple comorbidities who must be in that first batch of 50,000”.

More vaccines to come from COVAX facility

In addition to efforts to get more vaccines from other sources, Barbados will get more vaccines from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility. This facility aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Barbados is among 36 Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) member countries that have been notified about estimated doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines they could be receiving under the first phase of delivery, beginning this month.

The vaccine is still under review by the WHO for emergency use approval, but PAHO said on Sunday that this exercise is expected to be advanced over the “next few days”. According to PAHO, the number of doses and delivery schedules remain subject to emergency use approval and manufacturing capacity, as well as the establishment of supply agreements between the producers, and PAHO and UNICEF, which are designated to procure and deploy vaccines under COVAX.

Ahead of the two-week lockdown aimed at beating the community spread of the pandemic, Mottley urged Bajans to use the period to “pause, rest, reflect and renew”. The curfew takes effect today between the hours of 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and only essential services and businesses will be allowed to operate.