Vietnam reports 105 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the bag

Vietnam making sure 105 million doses of vaccines

Among the 105 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine that Vietnam is certain to receive right now, 38.9 million will come from the COVAX Facility of the World Health Organization (WHO), 30 million from the contracts between AstraZeneca and Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), and 31 million from the contracts between Pfizer and the government, and 5 million comes from Moderna hands over to Zuellig Pharma Vietnam, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 13.

Besides this, Vietnam is negotiating the purchase of an additional 55 million doses, including 40 million Sputnik V vaccines of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) via T&T Group and 15 million Covaxin vaccines of India via the Ministry of Health.

As of July 12, Vietnam has received about 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and is going to get more thanks to the purchasing negotiation and assistance of the partner countries and international organisations.

Specifically, COVAX will deliver over one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech to Vietnam during July-September, following 4.5 milliondoses of vaccines already delivered, as well as prioritise Vietnam for subsequent distributions.

COVAX will also transfer the production technology for mRNA vaccines and sends experts to support Vietnam to become one of the regional vaccine centres.

Two million doses of US firm Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines donated by the US through the COVAX programme arrived in Hanoi last weekend. US businesses also signed some technology transfer contracts with local partners.

Following two million doses of AstraZeneca arriving in Vietnam already, Japan will provide one million doses additionally to Vietnam this week, as well as support Vietnam to do clinical trials, transfer, and sell vaccine production technologies.

Vietnam has received 500,000 doses of China's Sinopharm and 1,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V. South Korea gave 30 million injection cylinders, equivalent to about $2.5 million, and the governments and people of some German states donated 1 million COVID-19 quick test kits.

Other countries have pledged to support Vietnam in the time to come, like the Australian government with AUD13.5 million ($10 million) through the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca by the end of 2021.

The UK also prioritises Vietnam in delivering 100 million doses of vaccine that it distributes over the world under COVAX and bilateral agreements. Additionally, the country has requested AstraZeneca to transfer technology and support Vietnam in building out vaccine production.