COVID-19: equitable distribution of vaccines

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Her Excellency Marta Lucía Ramírez, Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Colombia; His Excellency Alfredo Borrero Vega, Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador; other high national authorities present; Dr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); honorable Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS); dear fellow ambassadors.

The Dominican Delegation wishes, first of all, to express its thanks for the valuable presentations made this afternoon in follow-up to resolution CP/RES. 1165 (2312/21) on “The equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” adopted by this Permanent Council on February 17. The matter before us remains an essential part of our Organization's agenda and has been present, as a cross-cutting issue, in practically every topic and piece of work of the past seventeen months; in that regard, different kinds of concerns and challenges have arisen, prominent among them equitable access to vaccines. It must be recognized, however, that the situation evolves every day and that, in addition to equitable access to vaccines, other new challenges have emerged.

With regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, in recent months we have seen displays of solidarity on the part of developed countries and other international partners, which we value and greatly appreciate, in addition to the support we have had from the outset from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Pan American Health Organization, which has contributed to the fight against the pandemic and to the economic and social growth and stability of our countries.

The Dominican Republic has made great efforts to implement successfully a national COVID-19 vaccination plan, with which we seek to vaccinate eight million people in this year of 2021. In total, as of today, almost nine million doses have reached people in the Dominican Republic, who have received one or two doses. Progress in carrying out this vaccination plan has had very favorable results in reducing cases of infection and deaths, which has allowed the recovery of important economic sectors and the creation of jobs, as in the case of tourism. Nevertheless, we reiterate our concern and the message that we must not lower our guard, above all as new challenges arise, such as the new variants of the virus and the irresponsible disinformation against vaccination that exists in our countries.

The disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines spread through the Internet, social media and some news media is causing infections and deaths, above all among people who are not vaccinated, and it is undermining the great efforts we are making to reduce cases of coronavirus in our countries to a minimum.

In that connection, the Dominican Republic calls on the political leadership of our countries, on civil society organizations, on the churches and on business and labor organizations, to name a few, to continue to deepen their efforts and to encourage the population to keep getting vaccinated, which, together with observance of the proper health protocols, is the guarantee that we will come through this hard test facing humanity.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.