LONDON, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Ahead of the in-person Group of Seven (G7) summit in southwest England, both the United States and Britain have separately revealed their plans to donate COVID-19 vaccines, as public pressure continues to pile up on developed countries to share more vaccines with the low-income world.

On Friday, the British government announced that it will donate at least 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses within the next year. The move came as U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that his country will donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccines to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and the African Union.

In an authored article published on Friday, the same day when the three-day G7 summit would kick off in Cornwall, England, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote: "So I want the G7 to adopt an exacting yet profoundly necessary target: to provide one billion doses to developing countries in order to vaccinate everyone in the world by the end of next year."

Over the past few months, developed countries have been widely criticized for hoarding vaccines.

In an opinion article published on Monday, Will Hall, global policy and advocacy manager at charitable foundation Wellcome, said that COVID-19 vaccine access is currently far from equitable, and the G7 countries have purchased over a third of the world's vaccine supply, despite making up only 13 percent of the global population.

To put it into further context, the rate of vaccination in high-income countries is 75 times that of low-income countries, Hall said.

Nine out of 10 African countries could miss the target of vaccinating 10 percent of their population against COVID-19 by September, dimming hopes of containing the pandemic on the continent, said Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization regional director for Africa, on Thursday.

Moeti said in a statement that Africa required 225 million doses to achieve the 10 percent vaccination target, adding that the continent is banking on donations and replenishing the COVAX facility to ramp up inoculation targeting high-risk groups.

The WHO-led COVAX is a global coalition that works to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world.

"It seems to me that spreading the vaccines as widely as possible is now absolutely imperative. But I think it needs to be done quickly," Uma Kambhampati, a professor of development economics at the University of Reading, told Xinhua.

It is a positive step that major developed countries are committing to sharing more vaccines with the world. But some experts say the pledged doses might not be enough, as the risk of contracting COVID-19 remains high among the most vulnerable people in many low-income countries.

Prior to Biden's announcement, media reports revealed the U.S. planned to donate 500 million vaccine doses.

Responding to these reports, Niko Lusiani, Oxfam America's vaccine lead, said in a statement that the 500 million doses "are welcome as they will help more than 250 million people, but that's still a drop in the bucket compared to the need across the world."

Despite challenges, many countries and international organizations have been working hard to address vaccine shortage issues in the past few months.

China has been taking concrete steps to deliver on its promise to make Chinese vaccines a global public good, and implementing with practical actions the concept of a global community of health for all.

China is organizing and carrying out vaccine aid work for 88 countries and four international organizations, said Qian Chunying, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce, on Monday.

For example, Chinese vaccines have helped boost Cambodia's vaccination drive. Cambodia has received a new batch of Chinese vaccines on Tuesday, including Sinopharm vaccines donated by the Chinese government and those purchased from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, according to a Cambodian government official.

"As long as the virus is circulating anywhere, we are all at risk of dangerous variants developing that may spread around the world and bring us back to the start of the pandemic once again," said Hall, adding that equitable access to vaccines "will have the biggest impact on tackling the pandemic this year." Enditem

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