In June, at the Group of Seven summit held in England, President Joe Biden pledged to share some of the U.S.'s COVID vaccine doses with countries in need.

Tuesday, August 17 marks the start of Biden's fulfillment of this promise with the U.S. sending 488,370 doses of Pfizer to Rwanda.

The doses are being delivered to Rwanda through a global vaccination program called COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX.

As of August 16, the African country of 12.6 million people is reporting a total of about 435 new COVID cases, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 854,194 vaccine doses have been administered.

The U.S.'s donation to Rwanda is only the first of 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that America will dole out to the international community.  

 "Today, we are shipping over 488,000 doses of Pfizer to Rwanda, including the first 100,000 doses from @POTUS' 500 million shots pledged and purchased this summer. This is just the beginning," assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz tweeted on Tuesday morning. 

Today, we are shipping over 488,000 doses of Pfizer to Rwanda, including the first 100,000 doses from ?@POTUS?’ 500 million shots pledged and purchased this summer. This is just the beginning. https://t.co/oDRdgxUyHW

Trending News

• Homeless man killed in shooting along GSRI Avenue on Saturday morning
• Early morning violence leaves one dead, another injured in separate incidents

— Kevin Munoz (@KMunoz46) August 17, 2021

Officials expect 200 million of the 500 million doses to be delivered by the end of this year, and the remaining 300 million doses to make their way to nations in need in the first half of 2022.