US to donate 1M COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan: Special envoy

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - The US will donate 1 million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to Afghanistan, the US special envoy to Afghanistan said on late Tuesday.

"The United States has offered the people of Afghanistan one million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses through #COVAX," Thomas West said on Twitter.

The envoy noted that with the additional vaccine doses, the total number of doses that the US donated to Afghanistan will reach 4.3 million.

He said that the aid will be added to the humanitarian assistance worth $474 million for Afghanistan this year.

Afghanistan is among the top 5 countries in need of humanitarian aid, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

The UN estimates that 22.8 million people, which is more than half of the population, may experience serious food shortages in Afghanistan during the winter months.