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Japan preparing to donate COVID vaccine to Vietnam: LDP lawmaker.
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Its Government expected to send doses of the jab developed by AstraZeneca.
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Since April 27 when the new wave started in Vietnam 5,341 local infections have been recorded in 39 of the nation’s 63 cities and provinces.
The Japanese government is preparing to provide COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam as the country struggles to procure enough doses for its citizens amid a spike in coronavirus infections, a lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Saturday.
Upper house lawmaker Masahisa Sato, who heads the ruling party’s Foreign Affairs Division, said in a television program that the government has started making arrangements with Vietnam.
Japan is expected to donate doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc of Britain. On Friday, Japan sent a total of 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan.
While Japan has secured enough AstraZeneca doses for 60 million people and approved their use last month, it does not intend to use them immediately in public inoculation programs due to rare cases of blood clots reported overseas.
Despite being touted as a model for containing the outbreak, Vietnam has been facing a resurgence of infections since late April, with its health authorities reporting a hybrid coronavirus variant that combines characteristics of the strains first detected in Britain and India.
Yesterday, Vietnam’s Health Ministry has authorized a COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinopharm for emergency use as the Southeast Asian country grapples with a wave of infections.
Vietnam recorded 91 local Covid-19 cases Saturday noon in five localities, with the central province of Ha Tinh and the southern Tien Giang Province added to the list.
Since April 27 when the new wave started in Vietnam 5,341 local infections have been recorded in 39 of the nation’s 63 cities and provinces.
Bac Giang and Bac Ninh have the highest numbers of infections, at 2,929 and 1,025, followed by Hanoi with 432, including 143 in the capital’s locked down hospitals, and HCMC with 339.
