The US has sent nearly half a million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Rwanda, White House spokesman Kevin Munoz has tweeted.

It included part of “500 million shots pledged and purchased this summer” by President Joe Biden’s administration for the Covax initiative, which delivers vaccines to poorer countries, he said.

Rwanda, which has vaccinated 10% of its adult population, is yet to confirm receipt of the US donation.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the world faced a “catastrophic moral failure” because rich nations had been hoarding Covid vaccines and urged them to donate jabs to poorer nations.

Rwanda, which saw infections spike in July because of the Delta variant, has vaccinated almost a million people since February.

On Sunday, health officials said they hoped normal life would resume in the country by early 2022 if vaccination rates continued as scheduled.