The Biden Administration announced plans to donate at least an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally, bringing the total vaccine donations from the U.S. to 80 million.
The plan calls for donating the doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of June, which will include 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 20 million doses comprised of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
"The U.S. will continue to donate from our excess supply as that supply is delivered to us,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
The announcement from the White House follows a statement on Monday from UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in which she noted that the COVAX Facility is behind in its efforts to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle- income countries.
Fore said COVAX “will deliver its 65 millionth dose in the coming days. It should have been at least its 170 millionth. By the time G7 leaders gather in the UK next month, and as a deadly second wave of COVID-19 will likely continue to sweep across India and many of its South Asian neighbors, the shortfall will near 190 million doses.”
In addition to India, Fore said COVID-19 cases are dramatically increasing in Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Argentina and Brazil. “The longer the virus continues to spread unchecked, the higher the risk of more deadly or contagious variants emerging,” Fore concluded.
