By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Aug. 12, 2021: The United States is finally sending COVID-19 vaccine donations to six more Caribbean nations as the region again is dealing with a spike in new infection rates.

Overall, the US will send 837,000 vaccine doses to the six CARICOM countries of Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Kitts-Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Haiti became the first Caribbean nation to receive any US COVID-19 vaccine donations, receiving 500,000 last month.

In this round, according to an official statement, Washington will send 305,370 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Bahamas will receive 397,000 doses while Barbados will get 70,200.

 Antigua and Barbuda will get 17,550; St Kitts and Nevis, 11,700; and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 35,100.

“We have been working to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people around the world as fast as possible. Thanks to the ingenuity of American scientists and the resilience and commitment of the American people, we’re in a position to help others,” President Joe Biden was quoted as saying.

As Caribbean governments struggle to make vaccines mandatory in their nation states amid a new spike in COVID-19 infections, and as anti-vaxxers protest, a News Americas analysis shows the region has received only a small percentage of vaccines to date compared to its population size.

A NAAN analysis of GAVI and other data released shows the Caribbean has so far received just over 1.6 million AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX sharing scheme for poorer countries, new data shows. That’s for a region that is home to over 40 million people.

And a News Americas analysis of recent PAHO vaccination data for the Americas show that so far, only 7.4 million out of a total population of 31.2 million in 32 Caribbean countries have been fully vaccinated to date.