The Caribbean Public Health Agency is aware that some countries in the European Union have suspended their AstraZeneca vaccination campaign as a result of reports of rare blood clotting disorders in people who received the vaccine.
“It should be noted that the vaccine used in the Caribbean is not the same version or batch as in Europe,” said a statement from the Caribbean Public Health Agency.
The statement said the suspension of this version of the vaccine was made as a precautionary measure while a full investigation of the reports is being carried out. At the moment, it is not possible to determine whether there is a link between the vaccine and the disorders.
“Adverse reactions that happen after immunization with any vaccine need to be fully investigated to rule out various factors, for example, concomitant diseases, disease progression and batch evaluation, before a final decision is made by health authorities,” he said. the statement.
The Global Health Organization’s Global Vaccine Advisory Committee (GACVS) systematically reviews all vaccine safety signs and concerns related to the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. This committee is carefully evaluating current reports on the Astra Zeneca vaccine. Once WHO has obtained a complete understanding of these events, the findings and any changes to the current recommendations will be immediately communicated to regional and international public health partners, including CARPHA.
The WHO states that “vaccination against COVID-19 will not reduce deaths from other causes. Deaths from other causes will continue to occur, including after vaccination, but causally unrelated. On March 9, more than 268 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered since the start of the pandemic, based on data reported to WHO by national governments. No cases of death have been found to be caused by the COVID-19 vaccines to date.[1]
We want to reassure our member states that CARPHA’s Caribbean Regulatory System (CRS) applies its trustworthy procedure to verify vaccines with emergency use authorization granted by strict regulatory authorities of reference.
CARPHA encourages people who have been vaccinated with any of the COVID-19 vaccines available in their country, to report adverse events that occur after vaccination to local health authorities.
Variant statement
The appearance of variants is part of the normal cycle of viral infection and replication and should not be considered an unusual process. As the variants appear more frequently the more the subjects become infected, it is essential to maintain all measures that prevent the occurrence of new infections (wearing masks, washing hands, social distance, avoiding crowding, etc.).
The appearance of new variants does not in any way justify the interruption of vaccination campaigns against SARS-CoV-2. Cutting transmission chains through preventive measures and the application of vaccines should be the main objective in this phase of the pandemic. Both the measures mentioned above, as well as the mass vaccination of the population, will help in fighting the disease and in the eventual end of the pandemic.
CARPHA remains committed to providing technical support and advice and continues to conduct tests for suspected COVID-19 cases for all CARPHA Member States (CMS) on a routine basis as requested. In collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus, CARPHA began conducting the complete genome sequencing for CARICOM countries in December 2020. So far, CARPHA has detected cases of the UK variant in several member states. No case of the Brazil or South Africa variant was detected.
A statement said that CARPHA officials met with chief doctors in the region to discuss several public health issues, including those related to the fight against COVID-19 disease.
CARPHA continues to work with its regional and international partners and CMS, for a harmonized regional response. The overall objective is for all countries to control the pandemic, slowing the transmission of the disease and reducing the mortality associated with COVID-19. In this regard, we urge countries to continue to enhance their surveillance capacity to examine, identify, test, isolate and track contacts from new cases with the support of public health prevention and control measures of social distance, the use of masks and hands.
We also recognize the important role that vaccination programs will play and are very satisfied with the efforts of countries so far to vaccinate vulnerable elderly people and frontline workers.