Japan said on Friday it would send 2 million additional doses of AstraZeneca PLC's COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan and Vietnam and arrangements were being made to send 1 million doses each to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The direct donations, which should help Japan to increase its diplomatic influence in Asia, come as wealthy nations are being pushed to provide more doses to the global vaccine sharing program COVAX to cover a 200-million dose shortfall.
While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus, some of the poorest countries have vaccinated fewer than 1% of their populations, according to estimates from Gavi, a global vaccine alliance that runs COVAX with the World Health Organization.