US to share AstraZeneca vaccine doses with world

But this will be done after it is authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration and becomes available

The United States plans to share 60 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with the world as they become available, US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy said here.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is widely in use around the world but has not yet been authorised by the US Food and Drug Administration.

“US announces plan to share AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine doses with the world. Sixty million doses to be shared as they become available,” Murthy said in a tweet on Monday.

A similar tweet also came from Andy Slavitt, White House Senior Adviser, COVID Response.

Last month, the White House had shared roughly four million doses of the vaccine with Canada and Mexico.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki clarified that these doses would be available in the coming weeks. “Just to be clear right now we have zero doses available of AstraZeneca,” she told reporters at her daily news conference.

“We’re talking about what the FDA needs to go through a review to ensure the safety and it’s meeting our own bar and our own guidelines. And we expect there to be approximately 10 million doses that could be ready if or when the FDA gives its concurrence, which could happen in the coming weeks. So this is not immediate,” she explained.

There is an estimated additional 50 million doses that are in various stages of production. These could be completed in stages across May and June, Psaki said.

‘No surplus vaccine doses for India now’

The UK is currently moving through its domestic priority lists for COVID-19 vaccines and therefore has no surplus doses to share with countries in need such as India at this stage, Downing Street said on Tuesday.

Twitter to add COVID-19 vaccine fact box

Microblogging and social networking service Twitter has come up with a new feature to add a fact box on users’ timelines to help promote the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination. The feature will provide people around the world with latest vaccine information in their country, reported The Verge. The link will take a user to a new page with information about  vaccines.

Tweet talk

Vivek Murthy@vivek_murthy
US announces plan to share AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine doses with the world. Sixty million doses to be shared as they become available

5,34,598
No. of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours

147,377,159
Total no. of cases worldwide

3,112,041
Total no. of deaths worldwide

Source: WHO/Johns Hopkins

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