AZN Astrazeneca Plc

By Sabrina Siddiqui and Andrew Restuccia 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. plans to share 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson with the rest of the world, President Biden said, on top of the 60 million AstraZeneca doses it had already promised to export.

Mr. Biden said Monday that 80 million vaccine doses are expected to be exported by the end of June. The AstraZeneca doses will be delivered once federal authorities sign off.

"We know America can never be fully safe until the pandemic that's raging globally is under control," Mr. Biden said, adding that the 80 million doses the U.S. intends to export abroad is five times more than any other nation has shared.

He said he hopes to announce progress on multilateral efforts to address the pandemic during the G-7 leaders meeting in June.

The president said the U.S. was making progress in its coronavirus response, adding that Covid-19 cases had gone down in all 50 states for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. He encouraged those Americans who haven't yet been vaccinated to get the shot.

Mr. Biden said Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 coordinator, will lead the administration's global vaccination efforts. Gayle Smith, a State Department official who is coordinating the U.S.'s role in the global coronavirus response, will also be a key part of the effort, Mr. Biden said.

Amid outbreaks in India and Brazil, and with more people in the U.S. getting vaccinated, Mr. Biden has faced pressure to export vaccines to other countries. The president had previously said he wanted to ensure that Americans had access to the vaccine.

Demand for vaccines declined in the U.S. in recent weeks after the number of daily doses administered reached a mid-April peak of 3.38 million. An average of 1.9 million doses were administered each day over the past week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Monday's announcement marks the first time the administration has said it will share vaccines authorized in the U.S. Pfizer, Moderna and J&J are all approved in the U.S.

Mr. Biden said in April that the U.S. would share as many as 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other nations following a review by the Food and Drug Administration. The AstraZeneca vaccine hasn't yet been approved in the U.S.

The administration also committed a combined four million AstraZeneca doses to Canada and Mexico.

Write to Sabrina Siddiqui at Sabrina.Siddiqui@wsj.com and Andrew Restuccia at andrew.restuccia@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2021 14:19 ET (18:19 GMT)

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