Vaccination Week in the Americas 2021. Final Report

Abstract

Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) is a regional initiative that aims to promote equity and access to vaccination in all countries in the Region of the Americas. The VWA platform can be adapted to national, regional, and global contexts to select activities that best meet local public health priorities. At the heart of this initiative are countries' relentless efforts to reach vulnerable population groups with little or no access to regular health services, such as those living in urban peripheries, rural or border areas, and indigenous communities, with vaccination. Faced with this global situation, several countries in the Region decided to again postpone VWA activities in 2020 order to allocate all their resources to the COVID-19 response. In 2021 as well, most countries in the Americas region did not participate in VWA activities for the second year in a year for these same reasons, and only 12 countries sent in cumulative reports detailing their scaled-back activities. As a part of the global pandemic response, PAHO has been a key factor in helping provide organizational support and health care resource delivery for countries in the Americas. As a collaborator with COVAX, PAHO has helped to procure personal protective equipment such as masks, gowns, and gloves; more than 20 million vaccine doses; and more than 25 million COVID-19 tests including both PCR and rapid antigen tests. Additionally, PAHO has also provided technical training exercises to help support testing, epidemiological tracing, and clinical care for health care systems in the Region.