U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the US will provide an additional 500 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine to lower-income countries.
In his first speech to the UN as President, Biden said that the United States had put more than $15 billion towards the global Covid pandemic and has shipped more than 160 million doses to other countries.
Pfizer and BioNTech will provide vaccines to 92 low and lower-middle-income countries along with the 55 member states of the African Union. The distribution of the first 500 million doses began in August, and the 1 billion to be delivered by the end of next September.
The initial doses of this program already reached Rwanda in mid-August. Since August, more than 30 million doses have been delivered to 22 nations.
“The president will call on world leaders to elevate the global level of ambition to end the Covid pandemic in 2022, and to build back better health security to prevent and prepare for future pandemics,” said a US official.