U.S. to ship 4 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses to Nigeria, 5.66 mln to South Africa

Sherritt International

28/07/2021 08:00

By Andrea Shalal
    WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on
Wednesday will ship nearly 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines
to two of the most populous African countries - Nigeria and
South Africa - as the continent battles a third wave of
infections, White House officials said.
    Four million doses of the Moderna  MRNA.O  COVID-19 vaccine
will go to Nigeria and 5.66 million doses of the Pfizer  PFE.N 
vaccine to South Africa, the officials said.
    The South Africa shipment is the single largest sent by the
United States since it began sending vaccine shots overseas, one
of the officials said. The latest shipments bring the total
number of U.S. vaccine doses sent to Africa to 16.4 million.
    The urgently needed help comes as amid growing concern about
vaccination rates in Africa, which lag far behind those of
advanced economies. 
    As of last week, African countries had administered just 60
million vaccine doses to a population that numbers over 1.3
billion, in part due to restrictions on shipments from
vaccine-producing countries like India.
    Experts worry that the highly contagious Delta variant could
pose another setback, if countries begin requiring booster shots
for fully-vaccinated individuals, a move that would slow
shipments of urgently needed vaccines to developing countries.
    The White House said equitable global access to safe and
effective vaccines was essential to ending the pandemic.
    "We are working to get as many safe and effective vaccines
to as many people around the world as fast as possible," one of
the White House officials said.
    With the latest shipment to Nigeria and South Africa, the
United States will exceed the 80 million vaccine doses that U.S.
President Joe Biden had pledged in May to donate to countries
around the world, one of the officials said. 
    Biden in June also announced plans to buy and donate 500
million Pfizer vaccine doses to 92 low- and lower middle income
countries and the African Union, but those shipments will begin
next month, the official said.

 (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
 ((andrea.shalal@tr.com; +1 202-815-7432;))