Vietnam to receive additional six million doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines

This information was released by Prof. Dang Duc Anh, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, on June 15.

According to Anh, the COVAX Facility will roll out an additional one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of June and early July.

The vaccines will be allocated to priority groups and in provinces which are home to large industrial parks.

From now until the end of the third quarter, Vietnam is due to receive an additional two million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine ordered by the Ministry of Health through the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC).

Meanwhile, Pfizer also unveiled that it is likely to ship three million doses of the vaccine to Vietnam in the third quarter, with the remaining doses coming in the fourth quarter.

Prof. Anh said the country is aiming to have 150 million doses to inoculate 75% of the population, thereby rapidly achieving herd immunity.

So far, four batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been delivered to Vietnam, with a total of nearly 2.9 million doses, including 117,600 on February 24, 811,200 on April 1, 1.682 million on May 16, and the latest batch of 288,000.

Vietnam launched the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in March, and about 1.55 million doses have been administered.

Prof. Anh noted that the shelf-life of COVID-19 vaccines is relatively short at only six months, while the period of transportation from the production facility to the country takes roughly two months.

Fortunately, it only takes between three and four months to deploy vaccinations before they reach their expiry date, said the health professional.

Vietnam has so far approved four COVID-19 vaccines, namely AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer.