By Reuters Staff

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       FILE PHOTO: A medical worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech "Comirnaty" vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in a vaccination center in Paris, France, July 23, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

       PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech government has approved plans to donate up to 2.39 million COVID-19 vaccines to countries in the Balkans, Africa and Asia by the end of 2021, a government official said on Monday.

       “We will only be safe from coronavirus if we provide vaccines for the whole world,” Milena Hrdinkova, state secretary for European affairs, said on her Twitter account.

       The Czech Republic, a European Union member of 10.7 million people, has administered almost 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since the end of December, with 4.6 million people fully vaccinated, according to Health Ministry data.

       Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Paul Simao

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