ALBA-TCP Expected to Provide Vaccines for Member Nations

Venezuela and Cuba are making progress in creating the Vaccine Bank for the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty, affirmed the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro.

The initiative to guarantee the vaccination of the integration mechanism’s peoples was part of the issues addressed during the visit to the Caribbean nation by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who developed an intense work schedule with the Cuban authorities, the head of state said.

During an assessment of the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country, Maduro insisted on meeting the Latin American and Caribbean nations’ medical needs, given the existing inequality in access to these inputs at the global level.

Maduro recalled that the project emerged during the18th ALBA-TCP Summit held in December to alleviate the “unfair and unequal” monopoly exercised by a small group of governments in the acquisition of most of the vaccine doses to attend the health emergency in their respective countries.

Recently, the executive secretary of the regional block, Sacha Llorenti, informed that the Social Council of the organism and the board of directors of the ALBA Bank, with headquarters in Caracas, will hold Tuesday a coordination meeting to ensure access to treatments for the coronavirus disease.

The United Nations Organization (UN) blamed leaders of a group of rich countries for ignoring the needs of less developed nations and competing to buy lots of Covid-19 vaccines.

“Now we see how vaccines are rapidly reaching rich countries, and poor countries are not getting any,” warned UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for solidarity and joint global efforts to overcome the pandemic.