The 2,217,150 doses are given through the global vaccination program Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, the official said. Cumulatively, the U.S. will have given about 8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa.
These latest doses are part of President Joe Biden’s commitment to give 500 million Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to countries around the world. Biden has said he wants America to be an “arsenal of vaccines” in the fight against Covid-19 and has repeatedly stressed that there is no connection to the acceptance of vaccines.
Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States would donate one million doses of Pfizer / BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam. The vice president made the announcement during a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Wednesday.
The latest donation to South Africa comes about a month after the U.S. sent 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, which was its largest bilateral donation to date.
Biden pledged at the Group of Seven summit earlier this year to buy and donate 500 million doses of Pfizer to countries around the world. The first of these doses was sent to Rwanda earlier this month.
The move to give hundreds of millions of vaccines worldwide will also serve to counter Russia and China’s efforts to use its own state-funded vaccines to expand its global influence. The White House has said it is concerned about Russia and China’s efforts to use vaccines for geopolitical benefits.
Officials have said that 200 million of the 500 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year and that the remaining 300 million doses will be delivered during the first half of 2022. About 75% of these vaccines will be shared with COVAX and approximately 25% will be shared directly with countries in need.
The Biden administration has also distributed the 80 million doses that the president initially pledged to give with the U.S. supply surplus.
The president also said the $ 2 billion U.S. contributions will go to a global coronavirus vaccine initiative and would support COVAX. It also pledged to fund an additional $ 2 billion based on contributions from other countries and to meet dose delivery targets.