Jamaica among lowest vaccinated PAHO countries

More than 1.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has said.

Dr Carissa Etienne, PAHO director, said just over 69 per cent of the region's population has completed immunisation schedules.

Speaking during PAHO's digital COVID-19 media briefing on Wednesday, Etienne said 17 member countries have passed the target of vaccinating 70 per cent of their populations.

These, she informed, include Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, noting that El Salvador is approaching this goal.

The director said while 40 states are over the 40 per cent vaccination mark, "we still have 11 countries that have not yet reached the target".

COVID-19 VACCINES

"I don't want to diminish the fact that we are doing well in terms of numbers, but I daresay, not well enough. But I think we can't ignore the fact that we still have 224 million people in our region who have not received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine," she further stated.

Jamaica is among the countries that are yet to reach the 70 per cent target. As of June 29, the country has administered 1.56 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Only 24 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated. The novel coronavirus has claimed 3,128 lives in the country as of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Etienne said that, since March, 27 countries for which PAHO has age-linked vaccination data "have reached a plateau".

"Our analysis shows that many countries are still not reaching enough of the older adults with vaccines. So, to protect our most vulnerable populations, we have to improve our outreach to older adults, and we need to get them vaccinated against COVID-19," the director said.