US President Joe Biden announces international COVID-19 vaccine-sharing plan

The show Time/source Yourstory

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that the US will allocate 75 percent - nearly 1.9 crore of the first tranche of 2.5 crore doses - of unused COVID-19 vaccines from its stockpile through the UN-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing programme to countries in South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa as part of his administration's framework for sharing 80 million (8 crore) vaccines globally by the end of June.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and three other world leaders, and informed them that the US will start sharing the first 25 million (2.5 crore) doses of COVID vaccines with their respective countries.

"At least 75 percent of these doses - nearly 19 million- will be shared through COVAX, including approximately 6 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately seven million for South and Southeast Asia, and approximately five million for Africa," Biden said

The Biden administration had been under pressure to send the excess COVID-19 vaccines with the US to nations like India, which are facing severe vaccine shortages. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was in Washington last week to discuss possible help from the US in addressing the vaccine shortages in India.