WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to send approximately 4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada under loan agreements with the two countries, a government official told Reuters on Thursday.
Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada 1.5 million doses, the official said.
“This virus knows no boundaries,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “We will only leave the virus behind if we help our global partners.”
The Biden administration has come under pressure from allies around the world to share vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca, which has been approved for use in other countries, but not yet in the United States.
AstraZeneca has millions of doses made at a US facility and has said it would have 30 million shots ready by early April. The company’s stock rose slightly on the news.
The deal to share the vaccine, which is still being finalized, will not affect President Joe Biden’s plans to have a vaccine available to all adults in the United States by the end of May, the official said. The deal will likely be announced publicly in the coming days.
Two officials said the vaccine would be delivered on a “short notice” once the deal was finalized, but declined to provide a more specific timetable.
The “releasable” vaccines are ready for use as soon as they arrive. Under the agreement, the United States will now share doses with Mexico and Canada, on the understanding that they will reimburse the United States with doses in return. The official said this would take place later this year.
The United States had no plans to share the vaccine with other countries at this time, he said.
“They are our neighbors, they are our partners,” the official said of Mexico and Canada. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had previously requested the vaccine.
Biden has said that if the United States has a surplus of vaccines, it will share it with the rest of the world.
The official noted that the United States has pledged $ 4 billion to the COVAX vaccine facility that aims to provide coronavirus vaccines to poor countries.
Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell