On June 18 and 19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with COVAX, delivered the first two U.S.-facilitated shipments of Pfizer’s pediatric COVID-19 vaccines to Mongolia (302,400 doses) and Nepal (2.2 million doses). These pediatric vaccines are part of President Biden’s commitment to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries around the world.
During the second Global COVID-19 Summit in May, the U.S. announced our commitment to expand our dose donation types to include boosters and pediatric doses to accelerate global vaccine coverage and meet partner countries’ demand for pediatric doses to vaccinate 5 to 11 year-olds. In collaboration with COVAX, USAID will now continue to ship pediatric doses to partner countries around the world that have requested them.
USAID supports countries to address the public health impacts of COVID-19 by reaching high vaccination coverage among the most at-risk populations (i.e. health workers, the elderly, and immunocompromised people) first. Given the ready availability of global COVID-19 vaccine supply, USAID is working with interested partner countries to expand vaccination to additional groups, including children.
Expanding vaccination to children can present countries with opportunities to reach higher risk populations, such as grandparents; increase community acceptance; and contribute to positive norms for COVID-19 vaccination uptake.
In addition to supporting pediatric COVID-19 vaccines, USAID continues its decades-long commitment to support essential immunization to protect children against vaccine-preventable diseases.