WASHINGTON – President Biden will announce a total of $ 4 billion in U.S. contributions to the international Covax program, administration officials said Thursday, directly involving the country in global efforts to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the world’s poorest countries .
Mr. Biden will outline his plans during a virtual meeting with G-7 leaders on Friday, where the topics are expected to include the global response to the pandemic, efforts to revive the world economy, climate change and tensions with China.
In a call with reporters on Thursday, senior administration officials said Biden would announce an initial $ 2 billion investment and call on other countries to join the World Health Organization’s vaccination effort and strengthen their commitments. The Biden administration said the initial contribution would come from funding approved by Congress in December, which is expected to be paid out by the end of this month.
The U.S. will release another $ 2 billion by 2021 and 2022, officials said, adding that other countries will keep their existing donation promises and deliver the initial doses of the vaccine to low- and middle-income countries.
A White House official said the government’s commitment ‘is to ensure worldwide access to fair, safe and effective vaccines to defeat the pandemic. ‘
“This pandemic is not going to end unless we end it worldwide,” the official added.
The Trump administration chose the Covax project after former President Donald Trump took steps to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization over its ties with China. After taking office in January, he quickly decided to reverse Trump’s decision. His administration also immediately expressed his intention to commit itself to the multilateral effort for global vaccinations.
Covax aims to deliver free Covid-19 vaccines to at least 20% of the world’s 92 poorest countries by the end of 2021. Just over 50 other countries, including Canada and higher-income countries such as South Africa and Mexico, have also ordered vaccinations through Covax, but have to pay the doses themselves.
Mr. Biden will also call on G-7 and other countries to raise billions more resources to expand global vaccinations against Covid-19 and boost the manufacture, supply and delivery of the vaccine, officials said.
Covax says it has agreed for about 2.27 billion doses of vaccines this year. Most countries will receive a first shipment in March, with some small deliveries expected at the end of February.
Some countries have made bilateral donations of the vaccine to neighboring countries. Biden administration officials no longer said whether the U.S. would donate excess vaccines, stressing the need to vaccinate the U.S. public against the virus first.
“We are currently focusing on vaccinating Americans, firing guns here and supporting the Covax efforts,” an official said.
The Biden government has entered into contracts with Pfizer and Moderna for more than 200 million additional doses of the vaccine, which the president said could vaccinate most of the adult U.S. population by the end of the summer.