US to donate 500m more vaccine doses to other countries

WASHINGTON • The United States yesterday promised to buy 500 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses to donate to other countries as it comes under increasing pressure to share its supply with the rest of the world.

The White House hosted a four-hour virtual summit aimed at boosting global vaccination rates and the administration of President Joe Biden wanted to show it is leading by example.

"To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere," Mr Biden said, kicking off the summit, which included leaders from Canada, Indonesia, South Africa and Britain, as well as World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis," he said of the pandemic that has raged since early last year, killing at least 4.9 million people.

The additional vaccines will bring US donations to the rest of the world to more than 1.1 billion doses, far short of the five to six billion doses global health experts say are needed by poorer countries.

Just 3.6 per cent of Africa's eligible population has been inoculated - compared with an average of more than 60 per cent in Western Europe.

The vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech will be made in the US and shipped to low-and lower middle-income countries from next January, a senior administration official said ahead of the announcement. "This is a huge commitment by the US. In fact, for every one shot we have administered in this country to date, we are now donating three shots to other countries," the official told reporters.

A source familiar with the issue said the government would pay some US$7 (S$9.45) per dose.

In his opening remarks, he stressed that the surge of vaccines must only be donated, with no "political" strings attached - a veiled dig at China, in particular.

In June, the Biden administration agreed to buy and donate 500 million doses of the vaccine. Under the terms of that contract, the US will pay Pfizer and BioNTech around US$3.5 billion or US$7 a dose for the shots.

The US has also come under criticism for planning booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans while millions of people around the world still do not have access to the life-saving vaccines.

The Covax facility, which provides Covid-19 vaccines to needy countries, has delivered over 286 million doses to 141 countries, data from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation shows.

This month, the organisations running the facility had to cut their 2021 delivery target by nearly 30 per cent to 1.425 billion doses.

Vaccination rates in some countries, including Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are less than 1 per cent, a Reuters tracker shows.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reprimanded world leaders on Tuesday for the inequitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, describing it as an "obscenity" and giving the world an "F in Ethics".

Delays in vaccinations mean the global population will be "exposed to new variants attacking us with greater ferocity", said Colombian President Ivan Duque yesterday.

Mr Biden's virtual summit focused on vaccinating the world, saving lives by tackling an oxygen shortage and making medicines more available, and preparing for another pandemic in the future, another administration official said.

Targets include getting 70 per cent of countries' populations vaccinated by this time next year. Deliveries of the initial 500 million doses began last month, and the total one billion doses are expected to be delivered by the end of September next year, according to a statement from Pfizer and BioNTech.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE