U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is sending 488,370 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses to Rwanda, including the first shipments that are part of a pledge he made at a Group of Seven summit to donate 500 million doses worldwide. The U.S. will ship the doses this week to Rwanda through Covax, the global vaccine sharing initiative, according to an official familiar with the plan. The shipment includes 188,730 doses that are the first installment under an agreement Biden struck at the G-7 meeting, and another 300,000 from surplus U.S. government supplies, which the U.S. has been shipping off steadily. The shipments will provide a steep boost to Rwanda’s inoculation campaign, which has given out 1 million shots so far, enough for 4.3% of the population, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Authorities in the U.S. and Rwanda had worked together to smooth out legal and regulatory hurdles to facilitate the delivery, the official said.
