(CNN) — The United States will begin shipping its first doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine overseas on Monday as part of the Biden administration’s commitment to donate millions of vaccines to other countries, a White House official told CNN.
The first batch of 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine will ship to Peru on Monday, the official said, as part of President Joe Biden’s initial commitment to share 80 million doses of the United States’ vaccine supply with the world. Biden reached an agreement with Pfizer to buy and share an additional 500 million doses with the world over the next two years.
The doses are expected to arrive in Peru this week and will be shared directly from the United States on a bilateral basis.
The United States will also ship 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Pakistan on Monday through Covax, the global vaccination program run by the World Health Organization, the official said.
The US plan to share covid-19 vaccines
Biden has pledged to allocate 80 million doses of the U.S. vaccine supply to other countries by the end of June, with 75% flowing through the Covax program and the remainder prioritizing countries dealing with surges, as well as the neighbors of the western hemisphere and other regional priorities.
The White House official was unable to provide an exact figure for how many doses the United States has donated to date, but said the administration “is currently working in the final stages to overcome all national regulatory, legal and operational hurdles to share each. drop of the 80 million doses that we have promised.
“The United States will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19, just as the United States was the arsenal of democracy during World War II,” Biden said earlier this month.
Biden has framed US vaccine donations as a moral imperative and in America’s self-interest, noting that the emergence of new variants around the world could pose a threat to the United States.
The president has also tried to differentiate US vaccine donations from the vaccine diplomacy in which countries like China have been involved, insisting that American donations “do not include pressure for potential favors or concessions.”
“We are doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic. That’s all. Period, ”Biden said earlier this month, speaking from the UK during the G7 summit.
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