Haiti receives 1st COVID-19 vaccines

Haiti is no longer the last country in the Americas without a COVID-19 vaccine.

Approximately 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, meaning it no longer was the only country in the Americas without any. But vaccine hesitancy, to say nothing of the recent violence and political unrest, could delay distribution for weeks. Both U.S. and Haiti military forces helped UNICEF transport the doses in a mostly clandestine effort necessitated by the surrounding violence. The Moderna vaccines, which will be stored in hundreds of solar-power refrigerators throughout Haiti, were donated by the U.S. government through COVAX and delivered to Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital. Though grateful, UNICEF representatives said they'll require many more -- and not just in Haiti. "We hope this first donation of doses will be followed by others," UNICEF said in a statement. "More donations from well-supplied countries will be needed for Haiti and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach those most vulnerable to COVID-19 infection."