White House reveals which countries will get the 55 million vaccine doses it is sharing globally

Virus Outbreak Japan Comapnies (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Virus Outbreak Japan Comapnies (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The Biden administration issued a notice on Monday detailing the allocations for 55 million Covid jabs it plans to donate from the US’s own stockpiles in the coming weeks.

A fact sheet sent out by the White House indicated that 41 million doses would be sent to the COVAX initiative, led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which would distribute the vaccines to countries across Africa, Asia, as well as Central and South America.

The remaining 14 million will be sent directly from the US to a laundry list of countries and territories including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Kosovo, according to the White House.

“Sharing millions of US vaccines with other countries signals a major commitment by the U.S. Government,” read the White House news release.

“Just like we have in our domestic response, we will move as expeditiously as possible, while abiding by US and host country regulatory and legal requirements, to facilitate the safe and secure transport of vaccines across international borders,” it continued.

The announcement of the allocation of 55 million vaccines Monday comes as part of a donation of 80 million Covid jabs from the US’s own stockpile, a donation that is separate from the 500 million doses the president announced that the US would purchase for donation earlier in June.

In total, the US’s donation of 580 billion vaccine doses represents a far higher contribution than that of any other country. China’s government has overseen the donation of roughly 25 million doses, the second-most of any country, according to a vaccine tracker operated by a Chinese firm.

Despite the contributions of the Biden administration, the COVAX initiative is still struggling to secure all the doses it will need to complete its commitment to deliver 2 billion vaccinations by the end of 2020.

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