The United States has donated and shipped more than 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 60 countries around the world, the White House announced Tuesday.

The milestone – part of an effort to stop the spread of the virus abroad – comes as the number of people getting vaccinated in the U.S. stagnates and new cases of COVID-19 soar, in some areas reaching the highest count since the pandemic started in March 2020.

President Joe Biden spoke about the vaccine-sharing program and provided other pandemic updates during remarks Tuesday afternoon.

“Vaccinate America and help vaccinate the world,” Biden said. “That's how we're going to beat this thing.”

(MORE: CDC Issues Report on Threat of Delta Variant)

But Biden also used the opportunity to criticize states who have made rules that are contrary to public health advice on fighting COVID-19, such as banning mask mandates.

"Worst of all, some state officials are passing laws or are signing orders that forbid people from doing the right thing. As of now, seven states not only ban mask mandates but also ban them in their school districts even for young children who cannot get vaccinated," Biden said.

Two of those states, Texas and Florida, accounted for one third of all new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. over the past week, according to the White House.

"What are we doing? Covid-19 is a national challenge," Biden said during his remarks. "And we have to come together, all of us together, as a country to solve it."

The President has promised that the U.S. will be an "arsenal of vaccines for the world and is acting with the same urgency to combat the virus abroad as here at home," a White House news release prior to the speech said.

That sense of urgency has been stepped up in recent weeks.

On July 27, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that vaccinated people return to wearing face masks when indoors in areas with substantial or high transmission rates. About 80% of the U.S. falls in those two categories, according to the CDC.

The surge of cases is being blamed on the more highly contagious delta variant of the virus. Public health officials, scientists and experts from the federal government down to the local level say vaccinations are key to bringing the nation and the world out of the pandemic.

Yet in some states, excess vaccines sit unused nearing their expiration dates, polls show a reluctance by many people to get vaccinated and misinformation continues to spread among vaccine doubters.

Just half of all Americans are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

(MORE: Face Masks Return to Disney)

The 110 million vaccine doses shipped to other countries by the U.S. come from the surplus of those unused domestically. They've been shipped through the global vaccine sharing program COVAX.

The White House press release includes a complete list of countries and the amounts they've received. The largest number – 8 million – has gone to Indonesia. Other large beneficiaries include Colombia and the Philippines, with about 6 million doses each, and Bangkok, with 5.5 million doses.

The U.S. plans to soon start shipping 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine that it has pledged to 100 low-income countries by June 2022.

More than 35 million people in the U.S. have contracted COVID-19, and some 631,000 people in the U.S. have died from the disease, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, nearly 200 million have been infected and more than 4.2 million have died.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.