WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that the delivery of 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine highlights America’s “enduring friendship” with Pakistan and its cooperation in the fight against Covid-19.

“We are committed to bringing this pandemic to an end around the world,” Secretary Blinken said in a tweet, posted hours after American officials handed over the vaccines to authorities in Islamabad.

The latest donation is part of the 80m doses the US is sharing with the world. In May, Pakistan received 1.2m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through Covax, a UN initiative backed by the United States. Later, Angela P. Aggeler, the Charge d’Affaires at the US embassy in Islamabad, told media outlets that Washington would be sending more in future.

In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Friday’s “delivery underscores our ties with the people of Pakistan and our commitment to beat the pandemic globally by vaccinating as many as possible, as quickly as possible.”

Says move has a singular objective of saving lives

On Saturday, the United States also sent 2.5m doses of Moderna vaccine to Bangladesh under the same Covax programme.

All these consignments have “a singular objective of saving lives and this is only the beginning,” Secretary Blinken said in another tweet.

He also referred to a recent statement by US President Joe Biden, assuring the international community that America “will be the world’s arsenal of vaccines in our shared fight against this virus”.

In Islamabad, Ms Aggeler told the media that “together with the Pakistani government and our international partners, we will work to ensure that the vaccines are distributed as quickly and safely as possible.”

Besides the vaccines, the US has also provided nearly $50 million in Covid-19 assistance through its partnership with the Pakistani government.

On Saturday, Pakistan reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases for two days in a row, taking the country’s Covid-19 tally to almost 1,000,000.

In New York, the United Nations issued a statement, urging world leaders to push back against new Covid surges through increased vaccination efforts and public health measures.

The statement warned that a new viral mutant called Delta was quickly becoming the dominant strain in many countries. “We are in a very dangerous period of the pandemic,” the world body added.

“In those countries with low Covid-19 vaccination coverage, terrible scenes of hospitals overflowing are again becoming the norm. But no country is out of the woods yet,” Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, the chief of the UN health agency, said.

Mr Tedros explained that the Delta variant was dangerous and continues to evolve and mutate, and this requires constant evaluation and careful adjustment of the public health response.

The UN health agency said that there were two ways for countries to push back against the new Covid-19 surges: public health and social measures and providing protective gear and vaccines to all the countries in the world.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2021