Argentina has been excluded from the list of 92 countries that will receive Pfizer vaccines from the United States

Argentina has been excluded from the list of 92 countries that will receive the doses of Pfizer that the United States government will donate to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Although White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki has avoided giving details of which countries would be the priority recipients of the shipments, in recent hours the list of nations receiving the doses and Argentina is not included, just like Brazil.

However, they will be received by other countries in the region such as Bolivia, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

“These countries have limited resources to access future Covid-19 vaccines; it is our duty to support them. Without this support, the majority of the world’s population will continue to suffer from this disease even after we have developed a tool to combat it. Now we can prevent that from happening, ”said Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, chairman of the Gavi Commission, the vaccine alliance that is part of Covax.

The organization revealed that the list of selected countries includes all economies with a gross national income per capita of less than $ 4,000, in addition to other economies selected by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA). .

“We now have the framework to ensure that all economies, especially the poorest countries, are not left behind in the race for the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden announced his intention to donate 500 million doses of the vaccine to everyone next year, in addition to the 80 million doses he had promised to deliver by the end of the month. U.S. officials have said Biden will ask other G7 members to do the same.

“We must end the Covid-19, not just around the country, like we do, but everywhere, ”Biden told members of the military on the first leg of his eight-day trip to three countries. He added that the campaign “requires coordinated multilateral action”.

“There isn’t a wall high enough to protect us from this pandemic or the next biological threat we face, and there will be more,” he added.

Thus, Washington has pledged to purchase and donate 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine to be distributed through the Covax alliance to 92 low-income countries and the African Union. It will thus be Covax’s largest donor of vaccines and its main funder, with a commitment of $ 4,000 million.

So far, the global alliance has distributed only 81 million doses, and some parts of the world, especially Africa, are completely devoid of vaccines.

List of beneficiary countries

-Low-income countries: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, North Korea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Yemen.

-Low-medium income: Angola, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, East Timor, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza Strip, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

-Other countries selected by the International Development Association of the World Bank (IDA): Dominican, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kosovo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Tuvalu.

AFG