The United States will be donating 10 million covid-19 vaccines to African nations, according to the allocation plan for 55 million of the first 80 million doses that the United States will be sharing with the world.
Earlier this month, the White House announced the allocation of the first 25 million doses, of which 5 million were to be shared with African nations.
The vaccine doses allocated for Africa will be shared with countries that will be selected in coordination with the African union.
In Africa, a continent of about 1.3 billion people, less than 3% of people have received any dose of a covid vaccine and less than 1% have been fully vaccinated (Our World in Data).
Of the 80 million doses that the Biden Administration had announced, the U.S. is sharing 75% through the global COVAX initiative and 25% will specifically target countries with extreme surges in cases.
In addition to these 80 million doses, President Biden announced during the G7 summit that the United States will be donating half a billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine to 92 lower income countries and members of the African Union. However, a list of specifically how these doses will be allocated has not yet been announced.
While the United States and many other countries have made tremendous progress vaccinating their populations, low-income and developing nations around the world have struggled to vaccinate their populations.
There is immense vaccine inequity around the world as the disparity between wealthier nations and less wealthy nations continues to grow.
The decision to share millions of doses with other countries is indicative of a commitment from the Biden administration to help combat the pandemic in other parts of the world. However, there is still a long way to go as a few million doses makes only a small dent in the immensely populous and largely unvaccinated continent of Africa.
A recent study found that Africa has the highest global mortality rate among critically ill covid-19 patients.
Noah Pitcher is a global politics correspondent for Today News Africa covering the U.S. government, United Nations, African Union, and other actors involved in international developments, political controversies, and humanitarian issues.