From [HERE] In the wake of one of the most devastating moments in Haiti's arduous history, there has been a bright spot.

One week after Haiti's president was assassinated, the country's first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines finally arrived.

President Jovenel Moïse was allegedly shot a dozen times in his private residence on July 7. Prior to his murder Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, was the only nation that hadn’t vaccinated a single resident against Covid-19.

Haiti was among the 92 poor and middle-income countries offered doses under the Covax Facility. But the government initially declined AstraZeneca PLC shots, citing side effects and widespread fears in the population.

“Haiti did not reject the offer of vaccines from Covax,” Haiti Ministry of Health General Director Laure Adrien said in a telephone interview. “All we asked was that they change the vaccine they were providing us.” [MORE] and [MORE]

Despite the political chaos, social disruption and a national "state of siege" that followed the killing, Haiti has now launched a mass COVID-19 immunization drive for health care workers and people over age 65. Haiti is one of the last countries in the world to make the vaccine available.

NPR says “The big question now is whether Haiti can overcome the political instability and high levels of distrust among the general public to actually get people vaccinated.“

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned in a memo in July that the volume of issues on Haiti's plate could leave it vulnerable to a devastating COVID-19 outbreak. The population is taking few precautions against the virus. Hardly anyone is vaccinated. And resistance to the vaccine is high. According to a survey conducted in June by UNICEFand the University of Haiti, only 22% of adults were open to getting it. The hesitancy is driven in part by people not viewing COVID-19 as a threat and in part by concerns amplified by social media about side effects. 

The PAHO memo adds, "The security situation could deteriorate even further and hurricane season has started."

Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Haiti remain low. Officially, just over 500 Haitians have died of COVID-19 so far in the pandemic — half the number of fatalities that occurred in the first month of Haiti's devastating cholera outbreak in 2010.

By all accounts, these numbers are underestimates; testing is even far less frequent in Haiti.

Pape says random antibody screenings of patients at the Gheskio clinic show that many Haitians have already been exposed to COVID-19. 

"The majority of my patients — the poor people — they are getting infected," he says. "Sometimes they have symptoms but not enough to require hospitalization or even ventilation care."

Many don't seek medical care for COVID-19 at all — because they can't afford to go to a clinic or because their symptoms are mild or nonexistent.

Pape says new variants of the virus, especially the alpha variant that was first identified in the U.K., have led to more severe cases in Haiti. So far, the so-called the delta variant hasn't been documented, but the country doesn't have the capacity to test for it.

However, the New Humanitarian explained that Haiti has been spared high COVID-19 death tolls  largely due to the fact that more than half of Haiti’s 11 million population are under the age of 24. Conversely, the Dominican Republic – which shares the same island – has seen more than 3,226 deaths and 246,299 cases, many linked to its booming tourism industry.