More than 1.2 mln AstraZeneca doses arrive in Vietnam
An additional 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Vietnam under an ongoing contract between a Vietnamese firm and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company amid the country’s heightened fight against COVID-19.
The shipment, which landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on August 19. This is the 9th shipment in a contract signed between Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) and AstraZeneca to purchase 30 million doses.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on August 19 phoned AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, suggesting that the firm speed up vaccine delivery and work on a vaccine program for people under 18.
Vietnam needs to acquire 150 million vaccine doses to inoculate two-thirds of its 98-million population and reach herd immunity.
As of August 19, Vietnam had received more than 22 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, including more than 14 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, more than 5 million doses of Moderna, more than 1.2 million doses of Pfizer, 12,000 doses of Sputnik-V and 2.5 million doses of Sinopharm.
Nano Covax is slated to be registered for emergency approval in August as part of an effort to make the first Vietnamese vaccine available as soon as possible in order to dampen the spread of the virus.
The country is speeding up vaccination and has administered more than 15.9 million doses nationwide, with 1.6 million people fully vaccinated since inoculation was rolled out on March 8, according to health ministry's data.
