Biden to Commit to Exporting Covid-19 Vaccines by End of June -- 2nd Update

By Sabrina Siddiqui and Andrew Restuccia 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. plans to share 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson with the rest of the world, the White House said Monday, on top of the 60 million AstraZeneca doses it had already promised to export.

President Biden, who is scheduled to deliver remarks on the coronavirus pandemic later Monday, will say all 80 million vaccine doses are expected to be exported by the end of June, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The AstraZeneca doses will be delivered once federal authorities sign off, she said.

"This is the most doses donated by any country in the world by five times," Ms. Psaki said of the 80 million total.

Mr. Biden will also announce that Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 coordinator, is going to lead the administration's global vaccination efforts, an administration official said.

Amid outbreaks in India and Brazil and with more people in the U.S. getting vaccinated, Mr. Biden has faced pressure to export vaccines to other countries. The president had previously said he wanted to ensure that Americans had access to the vaccine.

Demand for vaccines declined in the U.S. in recent weeks after the number of daily doses administered reached a mid-April peak of 3.38 million. An average of 1.9 million doses were administered each day over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Monday's announcement marks the first time the administration has said it will share vaccines authorized in the U.S. Pfizer, Moderna and J&J are all approved in the U.S.

Mr. Biden said in April that the U.S. would share as many as 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations following a review by the Food and Drug Administration. The AstraZeneca vaccine hasn't yet been approved in the U.S.

The administration also committed a combined four million AstraZeneca doses to Canada and Mexico.

Write to Sabrina Siddiqui at [e-mail] and Andrew Restuccia at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2021 13:34 ET (17:34 GMT)

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