A new discovery has marked a turning point in the world's vaccine rollout following fears over dosages going to waste during shipment across the globe.
The EU's drug agency on Monday approved the storage of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in fridges for up to a month, in a move that should boost its rollout across the bloc.
The storage period in fridges of unopened vials of the vaccine, which initially had to be stored in super-cooled freezers, had been lengthened from five days, the European Medicines Agency said.
The news came after the US announced it would be sharing an additional 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks.
The new move aims to bolster the global vaccine sharing commitment from the US to 80 million doses.
"We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that's raging globally is under control," President Joe Biden said at the White House.
"Our nation's going to be the arsenal of vaccines for the rest of the world," Biden said.
The US President said the superpower would "not use our vaccines to secure favours from other countries", throwing a veiled swipe at Russia and China, whose governments have sought to leverage their domestically produced vaccines midway through the global pandemic.