Washington, Jul 15 (AP) The US is shipping more than 3.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine to the Philippines.

The White House tells the Associated Press the donated single-shot vaccines will begin arriving in the Philippines later this week through COVAX, the international programme coordinating vaccine sharing with lower- and middle-income countries.

It's one of the largest installments of shipments in the U.S.'s expanding vaccine diplomacy campaign, with the nation now sharing about 50 million doses with the world. More than 30 million doses are awaiting shipment to other countries, pending regulatory and logistical clearances.

The U.S. also will purchase 500 million Pfizer doses to share globally in the upcoming year, with the first doses delivered in August. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)