Viet Nam received the second shipment of 1.682 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX Facility – the global vaccine access mechanism on May 16 afternoon, according to the Ministry of Health.

The vaccine will be preserved at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for examination before distribution to localities for the third phase of vaccination. (Photo: VNA)

The batch will be preserved at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for examination before distribution to localities for the third phase of vaccination.

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived the country on April 1.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that the ministry has spared no efforts to seek vaccine sources for the nation, and around 110 million doses will be supplied for Vietnam this year, 38.9 million doses of which are from COVAX Facility, 30 million from AstraZeneca, and 31 million from Pfizer/BioNTech.

Furthermore, the ministry has registered to buy additional 10 million doses through COVAX under the cost share mechanism.

Negotiations are underway to purchase more vaccines from Moderna, Johnson&Johnson, CureVac, Spunik V and Sinopharm, helping diversify vaccine source to serve the locals, he added.

Currently, four Vietnamese vaccines are under development, produced by Nagogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals (IVAC), Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 (Vabiotech) and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals (Polyvac).

Vietnam begun its inoculation campaign on March 8. As of May 15, as many as 977,032 frontline medical workers and members of the community-based anti-COVID-19 groups received COVID-19 vaccine shots.

Source: VNA