Barbados received a gift of 30,000 AstraZeneca vaccines as a donation from Argentina on December 5 at Grantley Adams International Airport.
Minister of Health and wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, Director of the Drug Service Maryam Hinds, and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Anton Best were present to receive the donation.
Ángel Dalmazzo, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy of Argentina in Barbados, officially handed over the donation of vaccines to Barbados.
On occasion, Dalmazzo said, “No nation will be fully safe until everyone around is safe and are actively participate in mutually standing hand to hand with other nations by donating them vaccines and testing kits to reduce the continuous spread of Covid-19.”
The donation was coordinated by an Argentine, White Helmets, a humanitarian body of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina, with an active presence in the Caribbean region.
Alongside, donations of Astrazeneca have alraedy been given to Vietnam(500,000 doses), Angola(350,000), Grenada(11,000), St Lucia(18,000), St Vincent and Grenadines(11,000) and Dominica(2,000) doses.
Dalmazzo further added that “This donation is also a symbol of historical friendly relations Argentina share with its Caribbean nations.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Best, while thanking Argentina, said, “Ministry of Health and wellness is grateful to Argentina for their contribution of vaccines in a part to boost the efforts of National Vaccination Programme for Covid-19.”
“We are already on the way to climb up to mark the first year of a vaccination programme. In the beginning, it was hard to have any access for vaccination, and we were relied upon the other countries to help small islands nations.”
He further added, “Earlier it was very tough for National Vaccination Programme to inform people about the vaccines, whether it is safe and effective. He pointed out various people who are still hesitant about a vaccine. ”
He further conclude, the facts show that COVID-19 vaccination has assisted the nations around the globe to defeat the pandemic and revive from its severe impacts.
