Biden to announce plan to give 500 million COVID-19 vaccines to 100 countries

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

By Hanna Park

(WASHINGTON) The Biden administration has reached an agreement with Pfizer–BioNTech to donate 500 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to about 100 countries over the next year, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Biden will announce his plans at the G-7 meeting in Britain on Thursday, according to three people familiar with the plans. Of the doses, the first 200 million will be distributed this year, and the remaining 300 million would be distributed by the middle of next year, they said.

The doses will be distributed through COVAX, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access or a worldwide initiative run by the World Health Organization to fairly distribute vaccines. The vaccines will be donated to 92 low-income countries as well as the African Union.

The president will use the growing “momentum” of the U.S. vaccination campaign “to rally the world’s democracies around solving this crisis globally, with America leading the way to create the arsenal of vaccines that will be critical in our global fight against COVID-19,” said Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, per The New York Times.

Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, is expected to appear with Biden when the president makes his announcement.

Biden previously announced that the U.S. would distribute 25 million doses this month to countries in the Caribbean and Latin America; South and Southeast Asia; Africa; and the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

On Wednesday, when asked by reporters before boarding Air Force One whether he planned to announce a new global vaccine strategy, Biden said, "I have one, and I'll be announcing it."

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