The United States says it is sending 140,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Suriname on Friday as part of its contribution to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
Washington also announced that 208,260 doses of the vaccine arrived in Jamaica on Thursday and that scientific teams and legal and regulatory authorities from both countries have worked together to ensure the prompt delivery of safe and effective vaccines.
“America will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19. We are proud to be able to deliver these safe and effective vaccines to the people of both countries. We are sharing these doses not to secure favours or extract concessions. Our vaccines do not come with strings attached. We are doing this with the singular objective of saving lives,” US President Joe Biden said.
“We’re leading the world in a global vaccine strategy because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing morally, the right thing from a global public health perspective, and right for our collective security and well-being,” he added.
The Biden-Harris administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world. In addition to the two billion US dollars donated to COVAX, the US government has purchased 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to distribute them through the year to the African Union and 92 low and lower-middle-income countries as defined by the Gavi’s COVAX Advanced Market Commitment.
The G7 followed up by committing an additional 500 million doses for the world. The US announcement represents the largest-ever purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country and a commitment by the American people to help protect people around the world from COVID-19.
“This is a unique moment in history, and it requires American leadership. We will continue to do all we can to build a world that is safer and more secure against the threat of infectious disease,” the White House said in a statement.
So far, the US has shipped vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas, St. Kitts-Nevis and Dominica.
CMC
