The U.S. will donate 500 million doses of Pfizer Covid vaccine

The United States will buy 500 million Covid-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer to donate to other countries. Joe Biden will announce on Thursday that this is a significant expansion of the country’s efforts to help increase global vaccination rates.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Biden administration has agreed to purchase 200 million doses this year and 300 million doses in the first half of next year to be sent to other countries. Earlier report Washington post.

The agreement marked a significant expansion in the momentum of US vaccine exports, after some people criticized the country for hoarding vaccines instead of helping people in need.

The White House did not comment, and Pfizer did not immediately respond to requests to do so. Biden is expected to announce the news in the UK before the G7 summit in Cornwall this weekend.

The United States has overseen one of the fastest vaccine launches in the world, providing at least one dose of vaccine to more than half of the population.But the demand for doses has slowed in recent weeks, and now only more than 1 million people are receiving vaccination every day — Less than about 3.5ma in April.

Biden had previously promised to donate 80 million doses from the country’s inventory, of which the first 25 million doses were Assigned last weekThis promise has attracted criticism from some experts, who warned that more people are needed to help IndiaIn recent months, there has been a devastating second wave of diseases.

According to people familiar with the matter, all 500 million doses of vaccine will be distributed to 92 countries through the Covax program supported by the World Health Organization. The person familiar with the matter added that the government’s negotiations were led by Jeff Zients, the head of Biden’s Covid-19 working group.