Part of President Biden’s commitment to purchase 500 million vaccine doses for low- and lower-middle-income countries, these Pfizer vaccines have been proven safe and effective for children ages 13–to-18. 

Today, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Amy J. Hyatt announced that the American people are donating 160,000 free doses of the safe and effective Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Comoros, specifically to enable the vaccination of children ages 13-to-18 years old.  These vaccines will be delivered through COVAX and are part of the Biden Administration’s commitment to increase vaccine coverage and end this pandemic. 

“Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has stood side-by-side with the people of Africa to prevent, treat, and vaccinate against COVID-19,” Chargé Hyatt said alongside the Minister of Youth Dr. Takiddine Youssouf after touring the cold chain facility established by the World Health Organization and UNICEF at OCOPHARMA to store the vaccines.  The 160,000 vaccine doses will arrive in two shipments scheduled for late March and April.    

The United States is sharing vaccines with nearly all African countries to save lives and to lead the world in bringing an end to the pandemic.  This effort is just one more example of our commitment to our African partners to mitigate the pandemic’s devastating social and economic impacts and build back a world that is even better prepared for the future.  

In October 2021, the United States provided $200,000 in urgent COVID-19 assistance for Comoros in partnership with the World Health Organization.  This assistance is supporting the Government of Comoros’s COVID-19 response by providing training to health workers, strengthening infection prevention control by providing personal protective equipment, expanding disease surveillance capacity to identify positive cases earlier, and increasing access to lifesaving oxygen for sick patients.  The funding is also supporting increased vaccine uptake through facilitation of local community dialogues and communication campaigns.  

These efforts build on decades of life-saving work and U.S. leadership in tackling global health crises.  Over the past 60 years, the U.S. government has worked with partners around the world to save millions of lives from diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and now COVID-19.  We are stronger together.