Gov’t allocates VND7.65 trillion more for COVID-19 vaccine imports

Thứ Năm, 01/07/2021, 16:22

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has agreed to earmark an additional VND7.65 trillion for purchasing AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for domestic use.

With a population of approximately 100 million, Vietnam aims to reach herd immunity by early 2022

Under a decision signed on June 30, the Ministry of Health has been assigned to purchase 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company (VNVC) and 31 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

The government earlier decided to re-purchase 30 million doses under a deal that the VNVC had reached with the AstraZeneca vaccine developer.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced in mid-May it had signed a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to import 31 million doses of its vaccine. the vaccine will be delivered to Vietnam in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.

Vietnam has so far received nearly 4.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, including nearly 2.5 million doses sponsored by COVAX, more than 400,000 doses purchased from the VNVC, and nearly one million doses donated by Japan.

China has also donated 500,000 doses of its Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine called Vero Cell to Vietnam.

Japan recently announced it will donate an additional 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam. The vaccine is due to arrive on July 1 and July 8.

VOV