The European Union is now one of the largest exporters of COVID-19 vaccines globally, having provided 150 nations with more than 1 billion vaccine doses.
The U.S. has exported fewer than 200 million vaccine doses to date but has pledged to donate more than 1 billion.
China has pledged to donate 2 billion doses by the end of the year. As of September 23, the Chinese foreign ministry stated that China had exported 1.2 billion doses to more than 100 countries.
The EU announced in September that it would provide an additional 200 million doses to low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere.
“We know that other countries also have to step up,” EU Commission President Ursala von der Leyen told the AP. “That’s the only way to beat the pandemic.”
To date, 47.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of vaccine, according to Our World in Data. But most of those doses have gone to middle- and high-income nations. Less than 3.0% of the people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.
In related news, India announced in late September that it would also resume exporting vaccines to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (commonly known as “COVAX”).
The country is one of the world’s top vaccine exporters, but halted vaccine shipments to other countries when dealing with a Delta-variant induced spike in infections.