Italy gifts additional 796,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam
The Italian Government on September 21 announced its decision to offer a further 796,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam via the Covax global facility to help the nation respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision came after the European nation provided the nation with more than 800,000 doses last week, thereby bringing the total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine donated by Italy to over 1.6 million.
The new doses makes Vietnam one of the top vaccine recipients from Italy which is also one of the EU members to offer the biggest assistance to Vietnam via the mechanism.
The donation indicates the Italian Government and people’s solidarity with Vietnam during the challenging period and is a vivid manifestation of the bilateral long-standing friendship and strategic partnership which was established in 2013.
It is also the outcome of the campaigning process at all levels, including Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s letter to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi as well as the great efforts by the Vietnamese Government’s working group on vaccine diplomacy, ministries, agencies and representative agencies in Italy.
Earlier September 14, Italy had handed over 812,060 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam via the Covax facility.
As of August, the country had received 33 million COVID-19 vaccine doses through Covax, foreign aid and commercial contracts. Around 16-17 million further doses are expected to arrive in Vietnam in September.
