By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will convene a virtual COVID-19 summit on Wednesday on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly aimed at boosting vaccinations worldwide with the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of 2022.

Jen Psaki spokeswoman for the White House, saying that the United States will ask all participants to pledge to work harder to make vaccines accessible to more people and get shots in arm. This is among many other recommendations to end the pandemic.

Biden, his first official trip as president to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. On Tuesday, he will be speaking to the assembled leaders from around the world. From the White House, he will chair the virus summit.

Senior administration officials said that Biden would issue an appeal for help. This summit isn’t a conference for pledges, but we expect that some partners will be prepared to make new announcements.

“We need to end the pandemic – as soon as possible, aiming by the end of next year. “We also need to strengthen our ability to respond, prevent and detect future biological threats, as well as mitigate the effects of outbreaks on communities across the globe,” said the official.

Biden is determined to combat the global pandemic by uniting leaders from all sectors, including the non-governmental sector, civil society and philanthropists, to stop the spread of the disease and to prevent it again, said the official.

World leaders are likely to continue discussions about the topic, such as at the G20 summit that will take place in Rome at October’s end.

More than 227.26 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 4,877,603​ have died, according to a Reuters tally https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/worldwide-coronavirus-cases-cross-15903-million-death-toll-3444309-2021-05-11.

Since December 2019, the first case of infection in China was reported in over 210 countries.