Thursday, the United States began shipping half a million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Jordan as part of its global efforts to confront the virus, according to officials.

A senior White House official told AFP that "500,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine have begun to be shipped from the United States to Jordan and will arrive on Saturday."

According to the official, who preferred not to be named, these doses are sent by direct arrangement between the United States and Jordan, and not through COVAX, the global mechanism for securing vaccines for poor countries. 

"We are proud of our ability to deliver these safe and effective vaccines to the people of Jordan," the same official told AFP.

Referring to what appears to be a diplomatic competition between the United States, Russia and China over vaccines, the official said, "We share these vaccines not to secure services or obtain concessions, we do this with the sole aim of saving lives."

In addition to providing 80 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to foreign countries distributed through "COVAX" Washington pledged to provide two billion dollars for this program.

Washington also plans to buy 500 million doses of the same Pfizer vaccine for the African Union and 92 poor countries.

"This is a unique moment in history, and it requires American leadership," the US official said.

Jordan, which has a population of about 10 million, has largely succeeded in confronting the spread of the pandemic. 

According to the World Health Organization, the total number of deaths due to infection with the virus in the Kingdom until Wednesday morning reached 9,855, and it peaked in March.

The United States previously sent shipments of the vaccine to Vietnam, Honduras and Bangladesh.