Washington — President Biden is set to announce Tuesday that the U.S. has donated and shipped more than 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 60 countries as part of broader efforts to combat the pandemic abroad.
Mr. Biden will mark the milestone in remarks delivered from the White House, during which he will also detail efforts to boost vaccination rates in the U.S., which is experiencing a surge in infections and hospitalizations driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
A White House official said Mr. Biden will highlight “recent actions by the private sector to ensure safe workplaces with vaccine requirements, a positive trend in upticks in vaccinations especially in areas with high case rates, and the tremendous grassroots work Americans are doing every day to get their communities vaccines.”
To help stop the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, the president in June vowed the U.S. would donate at least 80 million vaccine doses from the nation’s supply to countries abroad. The White House said the majority of the doses sent overseas were shipped through COVAX, a global initiative working to ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Biden administration is also poised to start shipping 500 million doses of Pfizer’s two-shot vaccine that the U.S. pledged to donate to low-income countries, according to a White House fact sheet.
“The United States has not and will not use its vaccines to secure favors from other countries. Our aim is to save lives,” the White House said.
A breakdown of the vaccine doses sent abroad from the Biden administration shows the most went to Indonesia, which received 8 million shots, followed by the Philippines with 6.2 million and Colombia, which was sent 6 million doses.
The spread of the Delta variant has prompted some places overseas to return to lockdowns and pandemic-related restrictions, including mask mandates. But concerns about the new strain, which is dominant in the U.S., has also led to a rise in vaccination rates.
Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said Monday there has been a nearly 70% increase in the average number of new people getting vaccinated each day. In the last week, 3 million Americans received their first shots, the highest seven-day total since July 4, he said.
The nation on Monday also hit the milestone of 70% of U.S. adults with at least one COVID-19 shot, a threshold Mr. Biden hoped to cross July 4.
