By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden plans to announce on Monday that he will send at least 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to other countries by the end of June, marking the first time the United States is sharing vaccines authorized for domestic use, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
It will bring the total number of doses to be sent abroad to 80 million, Psaki said. That includes 60 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which is not approved for use in the United States.
The move comes as U.S. states are seeing drops in vaccination numbers and countries like India are scrambling to get vaccines to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Psaki said more information about how the vaccines will be distributed is forthcoming.
(Reporting By Trevor Hunnicut and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Bill Berkrot)
