New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) The United States will send 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccines to countries battling the COVID-19 pandemic by June end.
The shipment will be in addition to the 60 million shots of AstraZeneca’s that it has already pledged for distribution, as soon as the drug regulator authorises them, said the White House in a statement.
“We will continue to donate from our excess supply as that supply is delivered to us,” it said, adding that the US “will not use its vaccines to secure favours from other countries.”
Monday’s announcement, the White House said, is the Biden-Harris administration’s next step as it ramps up efforts to respond to COVID-19 around the world.
“Going forward over the coming weeks, the U.S. will use its leadership working with our G7 partners, the EU, COVAX, and others to coordinate a multilateral effort focused on ending the pandemic,” it said.
“Specifically, we seek to garner concrete, deliverable commitments from other governments and private sector partners to make available more vaccines, spur production and manufacturing for vaccines and raw materials, get shots into arms around the world, and provide health security assistance to save lives, stop the spread of COVID-19, reduce the lifespan of this reduce the lifespan of this pandemic, and recover economically.”
The United States supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines to facilitate their increased production and equitable distribution among the needy.
The US recently sent six flights and up to $100 million of assistance to India.
