Joe Biden: US will share 20 million Covid-19 vaccines with other nations

Cyclists pedal during the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia cycling race, from Castel di Sangro to Campo Felice, Italy. Pic/AP/PTI

The United States (US) will share 20 million more doses of its Covid-19 vaccines with the rest of the world by the end of June, said President Joe Biden.

Monday's announcement came under mounting international pressure that Western wealthy nations, which have stockpiled vaccines far more than they need should share more doses with countries struggling with the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

"We have the vaccine. We've secured enough supply to vaccinate all adults and children above the age of 12," Biden said during a White House address.

"We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that's raging globally is under control."

The vaccines Washington is to ship overseas will consist of leftover doses from either Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson, which are authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration to use in the country. Earlier, the Biden administration has made commitment to send 60 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses overseas. The AstraZeneca jab has not been cleared by FDA yet.

Biden said on Monday that the 80 million doses will represent 30 per cent of the vaccines produced by the US by the end of June.

So far, the US has administered more than 272 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and distributed more than 344 million, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Biden administration has set a goal of getting 70 per cent of the country's adult population to receive at least one dose of a Covid vaccine by July 4. The FDA expanded its emergency use authorisation for Pfizer's vaccine to include people 12 to 15 years old last week.

Biden's announcement came after World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday repeated his calls for manufacturers and high-income countries to share their doses with COVAX.

Italy postpones night curfew, removes more curbs

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet has decided to postpone the anti-Coronavirus night curfew and approved a plan for further reopening, while pandemic trends in the country remained positive. After a cabinet meeting late on Monday, the government declared the curfew would be in force from 11 pm, instead of 10 pm, until 5 am starting from Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency. The restrictive measure will be further delayed to midnight by June 7, and fully scrapped from June 21, provided the curve of the infections remained stable.

UK records 2,323 cases of variant

A total of 2,323 cases of the Coronavirus variant first detected in India have been recorded in the UK, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said. Speaking on Monday at the House of Commons, the lower house of British Parliament, Hancock said the variant is now the dominant strain of the virus in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen, both in northwest England, with 483 confirmed cases.

Lanka announces travel restrictions

Sri Lankan authorities have announced that an island-wide travel restriction will come into force from 11 pm on Friday, until 4 am on May 25. Army Commander and Head of the National Operations Center for the Prevention of Covid-19, General Shavendra Silva told Xinhua news agency on Monday that once the new travel restriction is lifted on the morning of May 25, it will be imposed once again at 11 pm on that day till 4 am on May 28.

Also Read: Covid-19: Mumbai sees sharp dip, records 953 new cases

4,34,193
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

16,37,29,642
Total no. of cases worldwide

33,92,649
Total no. of deaths worldwide

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