At 9:00 am on April 1, 811.200 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX Facility through UNICEF arrived at Noi Bai International Airport. This is the first vaccine batch in the COVAX Facility’s commitment to support Vietnam with 92 countries worldwide.
COVID-19 vaccine batch consisting of 811.200 doses sponsored by COVAX arrived at Noi Bai airport on the morning of April 1, and was transferred to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for preservation. The Ministry of Health will coordinate the distribution for vaccination in 63 provinces and cities in April 2021.
This afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam attended the vaccine reception ceremony. Ambassadors of COVAX-sponsoring countries and representatives of international organizations were also present.
The COVAX Facility is a mechanism set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners that ensures all countries have fair and effective access to the vaccine.
According to the plan, COVAX will provide Vietnam with 30 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. The first batch of 1.37 million doses is scheduled for March 25. However, due to limited supply, progress has been slowed down. The first batch to Vietnam is also less than planned.
Ms. Rana Flowers, Chief Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam, said that due to production delays, deliveries were delayed to all COVAX participating countries, not only Vietnam.
However, COVAX is committed to supplying Vietnam with 4,176 million doses, delivered in batches from now to the end of May. The remaining batches are expected to arrive by the end of this year and early 2022. All of these vaccines will be provided by COVAX through UNICEF and free of charge.
According to this year’s plan, Vietnam received 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, of which 30 million doses from COVAX, 30 million doses by order.
On February 24, Vietnam received 117.600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through the purchase contract. The government has now deployed injections for nearly 50.000 people.
In addition to AstraZeneca, on March 23, Vietnam approved the Russian Sputnik vaccine to serve urgent needs in the prevention of COVID-19.
Vietnam expects to complete the third phase trial of vaccine Nano Covax by Nanogen at the end of September. Then Vietnam can be self-controlled with COVID-19 vaccine.
The whole world is in urgent need for the COVID-19 vaccine. Many countries banned the export of COVID-19 vaccine to serve the needs of domestic vaccination. Experts call this “vaccine nationalism”, making it difficult for third countries to access the vaccine.
