December 6, 2021, Tashkent, Uzbekistan – Thanks to the American people’s generosity, 301,860 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been delivered today to Uzbekistan to fight COVID-19. This Pfizer vaccine shipment is part of the United States Government donation of 1.1 billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for the world through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX).
Welcoming the vaccine arrival, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. Paul Poletes stated: “Safe and effective vaccines are our best tools to end the pandemic, and the United States is committed to purchasing and donating one billion doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, bringing the total doses shared by the U.S. to more than 1.1 billion.”
This donation builds on over 5.3 million doses of the U.S.-manufactured vaccines the United States has delivered to Uzbekistan in several shipments since July 2021. COVAX has also provided about 2.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Uzbekistan in multiple deliveries, partially funded by the U.S. Government.
In addition, through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently allocated $2.5 million in urgent COVID-19 assistance for Uzbekistan. With this assistance, the U.S. government, through USAID and the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), has provided more than $16 million to address COVID-19 in Uzbekistan.
USAID has also worked closely with Uzbekistan since the pandemic began to strengthen the national laboratory systems for large-scale testing; prevent and control infections in labs and healthcare facilities; improve diagnostic capacity, COVID-19 surveillance and rapid response; enhance the treatment of infected people; and improve public awareness of COVID-19, community engagement, and volunteer mobilization.
Worldwide, the United States has delivered more than 250 million COVID-19 vaccines and hundreds of millions more are on their way. The United States is the largest donor to the global vaccine initiative, COVAX.
Diseases know no borders. The United States is committed to partnering with Uzbekistan to end the COVID-19 pandemic, mitigate its devastating social and economic impacts, and build back a world that is even better prepared for future outbreaks.
