Afghanistan gets 1.48m Covid vaccine doses from US

KABUL (Pajhwok): The United States has provided 1,484,900 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccines to Afghanistan through the international platform COVAX.

On June 3, the Biden-Harris administration announced its framework for delivering at least 80 million doses worldwide and set out its plan to allocate the first 25 million doses, the US embassy in Kabul said.

The vaccines are the first of over 3.3 million doses pledged to Afghanistan by the White House last month during President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to the United States on June 24-25.

Welcoming the arrival of the 1.48 million doses on Friday, US Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Ross Wilson stated: “The US government proudly shares these vaccines as a continuation of our decades-long work to promote global public health and security.

“These doses represent our promise to the people of Afghanistan to remain your enduring partner and friend through crises and challenges.  Today, the US stands firmly and proudly with the people of Afghanistan and will continue to do so for years to come,” he added.

Afghanistan is not alone in the fight against COVID-19.  To help fight the spread of the virus, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have provided $40 million to directly help Afghanistan respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and reoriented other US development assistance to support Afghan efforts to deal with the pandemic’s consequences.

Additionally, USAID recently committed $38 million in emergency COVID-19 supplemental funding to the UN World Food Program (WFP) to address the food and nutrition needs of approximately 1.2 million COVID-impacted vulnerable people in Afghanistan.

In June, USAID delivered circuits, filters, and masks to help COVID patients in 18 hospitals across the country who are benefitting from the 100 ventilators donated by the US government last year.

USAID also helped to repair, maintain, calibrate, and install 29 mechanical ventilators and dozens of other equipment in nine provinces across the country.

sa/mud