United States buys 200 million more Pfizer doses for young kids

The US is purchasing another 200 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as part of preparations to inoculate younger children and possibly provide booster shots for fully vaccinated adults, the White House said on Friday.

Half of the doses should be delivered by the end of the year, with the rest to follow by April 2022, according to Pfizer.

This means that the US government has ordered 500 million Pfizer doses so far. Washington secured options for ordering up to 600 million doses last year.

In addition, the US government has ordered 500 million doses for delivery to other countries.

The US has been shipping vaccine doses abroad not only from Pfizer, but also Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. This week alone, 22 million doses were shipped, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

The US already has more than enough supplies to cover its people, but the vaccine drive has slowed significantly. Six months on, just under half the total population is fully vaccinated. For time being, all people aged 12 and over can be vaccinated.

Still, Psaki said the Biden administration is planning for "every "contingency," including the lowering of the age of eligibility and the potential that even fully vaccinated adults could needs a booster shot to be effectively protected against new variants.