BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) According to the US Chinese website, a senior US government official said that US President Biden will announce on the 19th that he will provide US$ 4 billion for the COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan (COVAX) led by WHO, which aims to help poor countries promote vaccination.
Biden will outline the plan at a virtual meeting with G7 members on the 19th. The official said that the White House plans to allocate $2 billion immediately, which was approved by Congress in December 2020. Biden will also promise another $2 billion in aid in 2021 and 2022.
The official said that the money will come from the funds already allocated by Congress for international vaccination and will not affect the Biden administration’s domestic vaccination plan. The Biden administration said this week that it is expected to vaccinate every American adult by July.
According to reports, the Trump administration refused to participate in the COVAX program.
COVAX plans to provide more than 330 million doses of vaccine in the first half of 2021, and about 145 countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate 3.3% of their population.
In December, 2020, COVAX officials said that the donations in place were still $4 billion short of the pledged amount. If the donations were not fulfilled, both rich and poor countries would suffer from "protracted epidemic and serious economic consequences".
The White House said it would release the second batch of $2 billion after other countries fulfilled their pledges and COVAX provided the first batch of vaccine doses to 92 low-income and middle-income countries.