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Vietnam will have more than 120 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in 2021, the Health Ministry announced on June 3. |
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Besides the AstraZeneca vaccine, Vietnam has negotiated to procure five million Moderna doses, 31 million Pfizer doses and 20 million Sputnik V doses. Specifically, the ministry said June 2 that Russia agreed to provide Vietnam with 20 million doses of its vaccine Sputnik V this year. In May, US-based Moderna authorised a company to distribute five million doses to Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City asked for permission to purchase this kind of vaccine. Meanwhile, on May 20, the ministry signed a contract with US-based firm Pfizer, under which 15.5 million doses will be supplied for Vietnam in the third quarter and 15.5 million doses in the fourth quarter of 2021. At present, Vietnam is using the AstraZeneca vaccine, with 1.1 million doses injected. In October 2020, the ministry negotiated with the British-Swedish company to buy 30 million doses. Also in the third quarter of 2020, the ministry successfully negotiated to secure 38.9 million doses through the COVAX Facility, of which 881,200 doses were delivered to Vietnam on April 1. The second batch of more than 1.68 million doses arrived in the country on May 16. Minster of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that since May, the ministry and relevant ministries and agencies have actively engaged in talks to get access to COVID-19 vaccine sources, and made every effort to secure more vaccines, thus bringing people’s lives to normal. To ensure finance, the Government and the Prime Minister decided to establish a COVID-19 vaccine fund. To buy 150 million doses to inoculate around 75 million people, the fund needs an estimated VND25.2 trillion (US$1.096 billion). Source: Nhan Dan Online |