US COVID-19 vaccine donations to Pakistan excees 32 million

Islamabad: To continue our shared efforts to combat COVID-19, the United States has shipped five million more doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan, the US embassy here said on Wednesday.

This donation brings the total number of COVID-19 vaccines provided by the U.S. government to the Pakistani people to more than 32.6 million.

These Pfizer vaccines are part of the 500 million Pfizer doses the United States purchased this summer to deliver to 92 countries worldwide, including Pakistan, to fulfill President Biden’s commitment to provide safe and effective vaccines around the world and supercharge the global fight against the pandemic. Pakistan has received more U.S. vaccine doses than any other country in the world, and the United States has already delivered more than 300 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide.

The United States has also provided $69.4 million in COVID-19 assistance through our partnership with the Government of Pakistan. Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has worked together with Pakistan to improve infection prevention and control, enhance patient care, expand laboratory testing, disease monitoring, and case tracking in all districts, and support frontline healthcare workers.

To accelerate our efforts in combatting COVID-19 with the emergence of the Omicron variant, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on December 21 announced an additional $580 million in assistance will be channeled to our multilateral partners. “This additional funding is a significant contribution to turn vaccines into vaccinations; strengthen public health capacity; support communities in need, and provide urgent, life-saving relief. Multilateral organizations are playing an indispensable role in these efforts, and with this additional $580 million, the United States is supporting seven such partners to continue and accelerate the critical work they are doing to help end the pandemic, strengthen public health capacity, and provide urgent relief,” Blinken said.

The United States is the single largest contributor in support of COVAX efforts to expand global access to COVID-19 vaccines.