Two million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, assisted by the US, are scheduled to arrive in Vietnam this weekend, the Health Ministry announced on July 8.

Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (Photo: Reuters)

This is part of the 80 million doses that US President Joe Biden has committed to supporting the world, and they are the first doses sent to Southeast Asia.

Moderna, also known as Spikevax, was approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on April 30.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health granted conditional approval for the vaccine for emergency use in the country in late June.

Under the approval decision, the vaccine comes in doses of 0.5ml of mRNA molecules protected by lipid nanoparticles SM-102. It is supplied in a carton of 10 multiple-dose vials, with each vial containing 10 doses.

This is the fifth vaccine conditionally authorised for emergency use by the ministry, following Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Sinopharm’s Vero-Cell and Pfizer/BioNTech.

As of July 7, Viet Nam had administered over 3.96 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The country has to date received nearly 5 million doses, including nearly 2.5 million doses committed by COVAX, and 2 million presented by other governments.

Source: VNA