US to purchase hundreds of millions more doses of Pfizer vaccine for donation to low-income countries

The government of Joe Biden to purchase hundreds of millions more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to donate to countries in need, according to two people familiar with the deal, said The Washington Postas the United States seeks to redouble its efforts to share vaccines with the world’s population.

The announcement of the purchase will be made early next week and It will coincide with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to report on the case

The White House, meanwhile, declined to comment, as did Pfizer, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of the deal were unclear on Friday.

In the month of June, The United States has purchased 500 million doses of the vaccine to be distributed by Covax, the World Health Organization-backed initiative to share doses globally, and officials said vaccines would be targeted at low and middle income countries.

It is also expected that the The White House officially announces on Friday that it will host a virtual summit of world leaders and global health advocates concurrently with meetings of the United Nations General Assembly next week, said three people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the pending announcement.

Biden plans to use the summit, scheduled for Wednesday, to call on world leaders to make new commitments to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including the objective of complete vaccination of 70% of the world’s population by next September, securing billions of additional doses for the developing world, according to a list obtained by The Washington Post.

The announcement comes in the middle of growing criticism that the United States is not doing enough to help global immunization, especially when federal health agencies are consider recommending a third booster dose for Americans.

The Biden administration, for its part, has insisted that the United States has enough supplies vaccines for booster shots and global donations.

(c) 2021, The Washington Post

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