US announces 55 million vaccine doses for global distribution, India unlikely to get more than 2 million

While the exact allocation for India has not been spelt out yet, the country is likely to get not more than 1 million or 2 million doses in the second tranche of the 55 million doses, according to initial estimates. In the first tranche of 25 million, India is expected to get about 2 million to 3 million doses.

This puts India’s total allocation at 3 to 5 million doses, according to estimates. This is below the country’s daily doses being administered on a single day — on Monday, more than 8.2 million (82 lakh) doses were administered under the new vaccine policy.

The White House also said, “In addition, the U.S. is committed to expanding local production of vaccines, and through our Quad partnership and the International Development Finance Corporation’s support for vaccine manufacturing, more than 1 billion doses will be produced in Africa and India in 2021 and 2022.”

According to a statement by the White House, the allocation plan is as follows:

* About 41 million will be shared through COVAX (75% of 55 million doses), with the following allocations:

*About 14 million for Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, and other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Costa Rica.

* About 16 million for Asia: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and the Pacific Islands.

* 10 million for Africa to be shared with countries that will be selected in coordination with the African Union.

* About 14 million – or 25% of these 55 million vaccines – will be shared with regional priorities and other recipients, such as: Colombia, Argentina, Haiti, other CARICOM countries, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, and Bosnia.

The White House also said that in addition to sharing doses from its own vaccine supply, the US is committed to working with American manufacturers to produce more vaccines to share with the world. To that end, ahead of the G7, President Biden announced that the US will purchase half-a-billion Pfizer doses and donate them to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries and members of the African Union. In total, the G7+ agreed to provide an additional more than 1 billion doses starting summer 2021.