COVID-19 vaccines

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good morning, honorable Secretary General; honorable Assistant Secretary General; dear fellow ambassadors.

First, Ambassador Elisa Ruiz Díaz Bareiro, I would like to congratulate you and wish you every success in your chairmanship of the Permanent Council, and at the same time to offer you all our cooperation and support to that end.

The Dominican Delegation wishes to express its gratitude for the presentations on the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in our region and on access to vaccines given by His Excellency Euclides Acevedo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Paraguay; Dr. Barbosa of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Mr. Mauricio Claver-Carone; and our Secretary General, Luis Almagro, among others.

The matter before us is an essential part of the agenda of our Organization and has been present, as a cross-cutting issue, in practically every topic and piece of work of the past thirteen months. In that regard, different kinds of concerns and challenges have arisen, prominent among them that of equitable access to vaccines, which led this Permanent Council to adopt a resolution on February 17 of this year.

The Dominican Republic has made great efforts to implement successfully a COVID-19 vaccination plan with which it seeks to immunize almost 8 million people in this year of 2021. As we noted at our meeting on February 17, we believe that, like the Dominican Government, all Member States and permanent observers of our Organization are making great sacrifices to bring the COVID-19 vaccine to their respective populations.

Nevertheless, if the distribution of vaccines is not carried out through an equitable and non-discriminatory process, those efforts and sacrifices, especially those of developing countries, may be gravely affected. In this regard, we reiterate our call to vaccine manufacturers, developed countries, international organizations, international financial institutions and PAHO to continue joining efforts so that the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is carried out equitably throughout our Hemisphere and the world.

Before concluding, we would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our gratitude to the IDB and PAHO for the valuable support they provide to our countries in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and with maintaining economic and social stability in our countries.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.