On April 03, 108,810 free doses of the safe and effective Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Comoros through a donation by the American people. Delivered through COVAX, the vaccines will be distributed in Grande Comore, Anjouan, and Moheli by UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Ministry of Health.
The Pfizer vaccine is approved for use with children, so Comorian health authorities will now be able to offer a vaccine suitable for children between the ages of 12 and 17, a demographic not previously eligible for vaccination with the other vaccines currently available in Comoros.
“The United States Government is proud to work side-by-side with the Government of Comoros and our United Nations partners to ensure that Comorian children in every part of the country have equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,” said U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Amy J. Hyatt.
Chargé Hyatt applauded the Government of Comoros’ efforts to vaccinate its citizens against COVID-19. More than 67 percent of eligible Comorians have been vaccinated. These newly arrived vaccines will help increase Comoros’ vaccination rate and “make Comoros a model across Africa for how responsible leadership, together with cooperation with international partners like the United States, WHO, UNICEF, and others, can make a tremendous difference,” Chargé Hyatt said on March 1, after touring the cold chain facility in Moroni established by the World Health Organization and UNICEF to store the Pfizer vaccines.
This donation is part of the U.S. Government’s global effort to rapidly increase vaccine coverage, an initiative that has shared more than 500 million vaccine doses with the world, including Comoros. It is another example of the U.S. Government’s commitment to helping Comoros and other African nations mitigate the pandemic’s devastating social and economic impacts and build back a world that is better prepared for the future.
In October 2021, the United States provided $200,000 in urgent COVID-19 assistance for Comoros in partnership with WHO. This assistance supported the Government of Comoros’s COVID-19 response by training healthcare workers, providing personal protective equipment, expanding disease surveillance capacity, and increasing access to lifesaving oxygen for sick patients.
For more than 60 years, the United States has led international efforts to tackle global health crises, working with partners worldwide to save millions of lives from diseases such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and now COVID-19. We are stronger when we fight the global pandemic together.