“We are very pleased to be able to present these life-saving vaccines as a gift to the people of Georgia, as part of our strategic partnership,” said Ambassador Kelly Degnan, who greeted the plane bringing 500,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Tbilisi last night.

“The United States has supported efforts to protect the health and safety of the people of Georgia since the very beginning of the pandemic. Now we are able to provide the one thing that can end this global crisis – a safe and effective vaccine,” she said.

According to the US Embassy to Georgia, as the United States continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic at home and works to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the United States will be an arsenal of vaccines for the world. The United States is using the power of our democracy, the ingenuity of U.S. scientists, and the strength of U.S. manufacturing to beat the pandemic globally.

“On June 3, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that the United States would share vaccine with our partner Georgia as part of a commitment to donate 80 million doses of America’s own vaccine supply to help end the global pandemic.

The vaccine is a vital component of the United States’ overall global strategy to lead the fight to defeat COVID-19, including emergency public health assistance and aid to stop the virus’ spread and build global public health capacity. Over the past 20 years, the American people have provided more than $140 million in public health support through USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Disease Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and other agencies”, reads the statement released by the Embassy.

The 500,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine are in addition to the $27 million in total assistance that the U.S. government is providing to Georgia to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, including: three ultra-low temperature freezers for NCDC to store vaccines; 26,000 PCR testing kits for NCDC laboratories; support reagents to allow NCDC to track virus variants; an oxygen-generating factory for Central Republican Hospital to ensure all 300 beds mobilized for COVID-19 patients receive the proper oxygen supply; internet connections for more than 1,000 rural clinics to help medical professionals access training and the latest information on diagnosis and treatment; and sanitizers, gloves, masks, contactless thermometers and other supplies for schools and kindergartens.