U.S. to donate more than 14 million vaccine doses to Latin America and Caribbean

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The United States will donate more than 14 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19 to some 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, most of them through the Covax mechanism promoted by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), the White House announced on Monday.

These doses are part of the 80 million vaccines that U.S. President Joe Biden promised to deliver to other countries before the end of June, a goal that White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged on Monday could not be met.

“We have a lot of doses to share with the world, but this is a Herculean logistical challenge,” Psaki said at her daily press briefing.

Of the 80 million promised by Biden, 25 million began to be delivered earlier this month, and another 55 million remained to be allocated, which will be distributed “as quickly as possible,” Psaki stressed, without offering a specific timetable.

Approximately 41 million of the pending doses will be distributed through Covax. Of these, some 14 million will go to Latin America and the Caribbean, the White House said in a statement.

Specifically, they will reach Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other Caribbean communities (Caricom) countries.

Covax will channel another 10 million U.S.-donated doses to selected African countries with the help of the African Union. At the same time, 16 million more will reach some 20 nations in Asia, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

According to the White House, the United States has reserved another 14 million doses – 25% of the total of 55 million pending delivery – for direct delivery to allied countries or countries in need.

Several American and Caribbean countries will also benefit from these direct deliveries, including Colombia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other Caricom nations.

Biden’s office did not specify how many direct delivery doses will go to each of those countries. The list of nations benefiting from the 14 million vaccines also includes 22 other territories in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Earlier this month, the White House announced the delivery of another 25 million doses promised by Biden, with another 6 million doses going to Latin America and the Caribbean, 7 million more to Asia, 5 million to Africa, and more than 6 million to U.S. partners around the world.

Thus, the Americas will receive a total of more than 20 million of the 80 million doses announced by Biden, between those channeled through Covax and those delivered directly to countries in the region.

The vaccines shared are part of those approved for domestic use in the U.S.A. They are in addition to another 60 million doses that Washington already donated in May from AstraZeneca, which has not yet received the go-ahead from U.S. regulators.

In addition to these two large donations, Biden revealed last week, during the G7 summit, that the U.S. had purchased an additional 500 million vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech to deliver to nearly 100 countries over the next two years.

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