By Christine Fabro
An additional 20 million doses of American-authorized vaccines on top of the 60-million vaccine pledge will be donated to other countries by the United States (US) government.
US President Joe Biden announced on Monday (May 17) that the exportation of at least 20 million doses of Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines will begin by the end of next month, along with the 60 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines doses that he had previously planned to donate to other countries.
“This means over the next six weeks, the United States of America will send 80 million doses overseas. That represents 30% of the vaccines produced by the US by the end of June,” Biden said.
“This will be more vaccines than any country has shared to date, five times more than any other country,” he added.
This comes after the World Health Organization’s call for countries and manufacturers to share more doses to other countries that are in urgent need.
Meanwhile, the National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez, Jr. said at the Laging Handa Public Briefing on May 18 that they are in close communication with the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in the United States.
The vaccine czar said that Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose “Babe” Romualdez is now in negotiations with the key officials of the US government about the vaccine donations.
“Sa balita na ibinigay ni Amb. Babe [Romualdez], very positive ng response ng US government tungkol sa ating request lalo na sa mga AstraZeneca vaccines na hindi nila ginagamit,” Galvez said.
“According to Amb. Babe Romualdez, the US government gives us a very positive response in relation to our request for AstraZeneca vaccines that they will not consume, Galvez said.
As of press time, there are no official announcements on which countries will receive these vaccine doses. –rir
