US donates 115,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to Tajikistan

DUSHANBE -- The United States, through its US Agency for International Development (USAID), on Monday (September 20) donated the first tranche of approximately 115,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Tajikistan to fight COVID-19, the US Embassy in Dushanbe said in a statement.

Other doses are coming this week, bringing the total donation to 325,260 doses.

The donation to Tajikistan is part of the US government's donation of 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for the world through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility.

This donation builds on more than 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine the United States delivered to Tajikistan on July 26. COVAX has also provided 461,440 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Tajikistan in multiple deliveries.

With the help of UNICEF and the US government, Tajikistan soon will have eight 258-liter Ultra Cold Chain freezers to store the Pfizer vaccines. This is the first time Tajikistan will be using that technology.

'Proud to work with Tajikistan'

"This new donation of the Pfizer vaccine will save even more lives. I am proud to work with Tajikistan to end the pandemic," US Ambassador to Tajikistan John Mark Pommersheim said.

"By working together, we can stop this deadly scourge and rebuild our economies. We will continue to assist the people of Tajikistan defeat this virus, and we will get through this crisis together."

The vaccine donation is part of additional assistance to strengthen the Tajik healthcare system; "improve COVID-19 surveillance, response, and case management ... and support the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine", said the embassy.

The United States donated more than 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Uzbekistan last week.