WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) Executive Committee has ended its 168th Session with draft resolutions on key issues such as resilient health systems, equitable access to the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, and a comprehensive approach for addressing health threats at the human-animal-environment health interface, also known as “One Health.”

CASTRIES, St. Lucia – The Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday warned that the Caribbean countries cannot open up their economies without having access to vaccines.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, says the coronavirus (COVID019) pandemic has provided the Caribbean governments with the opportunity to implement tax cuts for airline tickets across the region.

LONDON, UK – Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland on Thursday urged the international community to make crucial changes to how it delivers finance to developing nations, including those in the Caribbean, proposing a new system that moves beyond the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the sole criteria for receiving certain types of support.

UNITED NATIONS – United Nations humanitarians say there is need for greater international support for vulnerable Venezuelan migrants and refugees to the Caribbean and other countries particularly impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and socio-economic crisis.

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands – The Cayman Islands has started the genome sequencing of local COVID-19 cases making territory the first in the region, outside of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), to do so.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Dr.  Carissa Etienne says more than 1.8 million people have died from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the Americas while the region has suffered an “unprecedented rise in poverty.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -President Irfaan Ali on Saturday proclaimed that the floods across Guyana have reached the stage of a national disaster and crisis.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A senior official of the United States Embassy here has welcomed the announcement by President Joe Biden that it is providing six million doses of vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNITED NATIONS – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for debt relief extension for Caribbean and other middle-income countries, saying that innovative measures to address debt are required to help the world’s more than 100 middle-income countries expand their economies and exit the COVID-19 pandemic. 

GENEVA, Switzerland – A new United Nations report says the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is endangering progress made in Asia and the Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The African Union has allocated 1.5 million doses of the US manufactured Johnson & Johnson vaccines to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Guyana’s Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony announced here on Monday.