Additional 17 million J&J doses donated to the African Union – US

The new administration the united States of America led by Joe Biden, has announced that the United States will be donating 17 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union, thus bringing the total vaccine donation by America to the African continent to 67 million doses.

Recall that prior to this, the United States had donated 50 million doses to the African Union to be distributed amongst the 55 countries under to the AU, including some of the world’s poorest countries, according to Reuters.

 

The 17 million Johnson & Johnson doses are expected to be delivered to the African Union in the coming weeks, according to the White House in a statement on Thursday.

President of the United States, Joe Biden, during a meeting with Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, said, “We’re continuing our shared fight against COVID. The United States, we’ve donated 2.8 million doses of vaccine to Kenya as part of 50 million doses we’ve donated to the African Union. And I’m proud to announce that today, that we’re making additional, historic, one-time donation and 17 more million doses of the J&J vaccine to the AU.”

Kenyatta said the United States “has done its best to step up, in terms of not only helping Kenya, but with the African continent, in general, with regard to access to vaccines.”