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, waiting for the Ministry of Health to coordinate.
Vaccine reception ceremony is expected to take place this afternoon with the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam. Ambassadors sponsoring Covax and representatives of international organizations attend.
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 vacicne.
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 to today. The first batch to Vietnam is also less than planned.
Currently the Ministry of Health has not announced plans to allocate this number of vaccines.
Covid-19 vaccine batch sponsored by Covax arrived at Noi Bai airport on the morning of April 1. Image: Phan Cong.
Ms. Rana Flowers, Chief Representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Viet Nam, 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.
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 24/2, Vietnam received 117,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through ordering contracts, has now deployed injections for nearly 50,000 people.
On March 23, Vietnam approved the Russian Sputnik vaccine to serve the urgent need to prevent Covid-19.
Domestic vaccine source, expected at the end of September, Vietnam will complete the third phase trial of vaccine Nanocovax by Nanogen company, then it can be self-controlled with Covid-19 vaccine.
The whole world is “thirsty” for the Covid-19 vaccine. Many countries ban the export of Covid-19 vaccine to serve the needs of domestic vaccinations. This move is known by experts as “vaccine nationalism”, making it difficult for many poor countries to access the Covid-19 vaccine.
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