In this handout photo released by the Philippines' National Task Force Against COVID19, workers check on the boxes containing Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines as they arrive at Manila's International Airport, on July 16, 2021. (National Task Force Against COVID19 via AP)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan will provide about 2.2 billion yen ($20 million) in grant aid to 14 Pacific island countries via U.N. Children's Fund to help them strengthen their medical systems and better fight the coronavirus pandemic, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

       The aid is expected to cover expenses for developing cold-chain equipment for vaccination programs, securing health care workers for vaccine rollout and setting up information management systems to track inoculations.

       It comes on top of the provision of 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Pacific islands through the U.N.-backed COVAX global vaccine sharing program pledged by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at a virtual summit meeting of Japan and the nations earlier in the month, the ministry said.

       The 14 Pacific island countries are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

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