As the United States has been on the track of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, President Joe Biden on Tuesday revealed that he had been receiving requests from almost half of the world leaders for vaccine-related assistance. 

Even though no countries were mentioned by name, the US has engaged itself with India, which is currently attempting to tackle a deadly second wave of COVID-19. India has received assistance in the form of medical equipment and oxygen supplies.

Moreover, India is likely to receive about 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which lies in surplus in the US. 

“Every country in the world is now looking at us to provide for their lack of capacity to produce and/or have vaccines,” Biden said in a virtual meeting with US state governors.

The statements were made in a virtual meeting with state governors of the US. Biden said, “Every country in the world is now looking at us to provide for their lack of capacity to produce and/or have vaccines. I literally have, virtually 40% of the world leaders calling and asking, can we help them”, reported AFP.

“We are going to try”, he added signaling that providing aid to every country might not be possible. 

International pressure has been mounting on the US to distribute the surplus vaccines in its reserve as most countries struggle with gaining access to a smooth supply of COVID-19 jabs.

Biden repeated his position that he is prioritising getting Americans inoculated but said “we are going to be working with other countries, because there are going to be a lot of variants”, reported AFP.

“I think we can produce a whole hell of a lot more vaccines that we can make available,” he said.

The United States currently has the Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in circulation.