US to ship 3mn doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The United States will ship just over 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan via the COVAX global distribution program on Tuesday, bringing the total number of doses sent to Pakistan to around 8.5 million, a White House official said.

Scientific teams and legal and regulatory authorities from both countries worked together to ensure the prompt delivery of the 3,006,900 vaccine lots made by Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, the official said.

"The Biden-Harris administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world," the official said.

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The shipment is part of a US vaccine diplomacy effort that has sent vaccines to dozens of countries. The doses will be delivered through the COVAX program, run by the World Health Organization, the official said.

Pakistan has reported over 25,000 deaths by COVID-19 and 1.13 million infections, with infection rates fueled in recent weeks by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

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Only 6.2% of 13.4 million of Pakistan's total population of 220 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data website.