September 13, 2021, Tashkent, Uzbekistan — Thanks to the American people’s generosity, 1,214,460 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been donated to Uzbekistan to fight COVID-19. These safe and effective vaccines will protect lives in Uzbekistan and help prevent the spread of dangerous new variants. This Pfizer vaccine shipment is part of the United States Government donation of 500 million safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses for the world through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility.
Welcoming the vaccine arrival, U.S. Ambassador Daniel Rosenblum stated: “We are working fast to get safe and effective vaccines to as many people as possible. Increasing global vaccination coverage is the best way out of this pandemic. These vaccine donations will save lives, rebuild the global economy, and help stop the threat of new COVID-19 variants.”
This donation builds on over three million doses of the Moderna vaccine the United States donated to Uzbekistan on July 30, 2021. COVAX has also provided almost 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Uzbekistan in multiple deliveries, partially funded by the U.S. Government.
In addition, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting Uzbekistan to safely and effectively distribute these vaccines, including helping train health workers, get vaccines where they need to go, and encourage people to get vaccinated.
USAID has also worked closely with Uzbekistan since the pandemic began to strengthen the national laboratory systems for large-scale testing; prevented and controlled infections in labs and healthcare facilities; improved diagnostic capacity, COVID-19 surveillance and rapid response; enhanced the treatment of infected people; and improved public awareness of COVID-19, community engagement, and volunteer mobilization.
Worldwide, the United States has delivered more than 140 million COVID-19 vaccines and hundreds of millions more are on their way. The United States is the largest single donor to the global vaccine initiative, COVAX.
The United States is committed to leading the global COVID-19 response because it is the right thing to do and will make us all—Americans and Uzbekistan alike—safer. We are proud to work with Uzbekistan to end this pandemic and build back a better world.
