The United States on Friday announced that it will ship 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Africa. The first batch of jabs would be sent to Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The first shipment, which will go out within days, will contain Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines, reports AFP quoting officials. The Biden administration plans to send out vaccines to a total of 49 African countries.

Djibouti and Burkina Faso will receive 151,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson, while Ethiopia will receive 453,600 doses, a senior Biden administration official told AFP.

The announcement comes at a time when the Delta variant of coronavirus is wreaking havoc across the globe. The Delta variant is the most infective strain of the virus yet. New outbreaks are appearing in several parts of the world – from Australia to the United States and Africa.

Also read: How vaccines work against the Delta variant

Overall, COVID-19 related deaths in Africa increased by 43% in the space of a week, driven by a lack of intensive-care beds and oxygen, the WHO said Thursday.

The US will coordinate with multilateral bodies to get the high quantities of vaccines to the continent. These include the African Union and Covax, the distributor backed by the World Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine alliance.

“In partnership with the African Union and Covax, the United States is proud to donate 25 million Covid-19 vaccines,” said Gayle Smith, US State Department coordinator for COVID-19 and global health.

There has been a huge divide between the distribution of vaccines around the globe. While the developed countries like the United States have rolled out nationwide vaccination drives, the poorer nations have been struggling to even get a few doses.

This has subsequently led to so-called vaccine diplomacy in which geopolitical powerhouses and vaccine producers China and Russia were accused of using their jabs to promote their strategic footprints.

The United States denies it is competing against its rivals, but Biden has made a priority of manoeuvring the United States to the centre of international efforts to extinguish the global crisis.

He has pledged to allocate an initial 80 million doses for international distribution.