The United States has donated 200 million COVID-19 vaccines as of Thursday to countries around to the world, a White House official said.
The vaccines were all successfully delivered and went to over 100 countries.
“President Biden has pledged that the U.S. will be the world’s arsenal of vaccines, and USAID continues to play a pivotal role in fulfilling the ambitious goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the eligible global population by next year,” Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said in a statement.
The State Department also released a video on Thursday to celebrate the 200 million vaccines, touting that the U.S. donated more vaccines than any other country in the world and all at no cost and with no strings attached.
“This pandemic will not end anywhere until it’s defeated everywhere,” the State Department video said, showing images of the vaccines being delivered.
Over the next year, the U.S. will donate over 1 billion U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccine doses to low and lower middle-income countries, Power announced. She added that USAID is also helping provide oxygen services, testing, medical treatment and personal protective equipment for health workers to other countries.
“Today, Americans have 200 million reasons to be proud. USAID is honored to be at the forefront of this global vaccination effort unprecedented in scale, speed, and complexity, to counter the worst pandemic in modern history,” she said.
Biden last month pledged to donate an additional 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to the world, bringing the total U.S. commitment to over 1.1 billion doses across this year and next.
Lawmakers and advocates have called on the president to do more to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, including providing more funds to ramp up global vaccine manufacturing and distribution.