Vietnam receives first batch of Covid-19 vaccine

Vietnam receives first batch of Covid-19 vaccine

By Phong Lan
Deputy head of the World News Desk
Dantri Online Newspaper

HANOI: The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Vietnam on February 24, which is hoped to curb the latest virus outbreak in the country.

Deputy Minister of Health, Truong Quoc Cuong said that 117,600 doses of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday morning.

“This vaccine has been used in over 50 countries and has high degrees of efficacy of over 80%,” he said.

The made-in-UK vaccine Zeneca was given permission to be imported into Vietnam on February 1. AstraZeneca Vietnam had worked with the local Department of Science and Training to carry out a clinical trial in Vietnam before the import of the first 204,000 doses into Vietnam.

Covid-19 Vaccine Zeneca is developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the UK. It has been given a one-year circulation and conditional import permits in several countries including the UK, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines.

Vietnam intends to offer free Covid-19 vaccinations for local people according to the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

The committee said at a Tuesday meeting that the country is negotiating to have more Covid-19 vaccines that will be given to prioritised groups first. The country will give the Covid-19 vaccine injections free to local people like other kinds of vaccines in the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said that Vietnam would receive 4.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine through the COVAX initiative in the coming time. Among those, 25-35% will be delivered in the first quarter of 2021 and 65-75% will be delivered in the second quarter.

Vietnam News Agency reported that in the first quarter, the health ministry expects to inoculate 95% of 500,000 frontline medical workers and 116,000 anti-pandemic staff.

In the second quarter, the health ministry aims to inoculate 95% of 9,200 customs officers, 4,080 diplomats, 1,027,000 military officers, 304,000 public security officers, and 550,000 teachers that are considered in high risks categories. All in all, 3.6 million doses are to be used in this period for 1.8 million people.

In the third and fourth quarter, if the promise of COVAX Facility to provide enough doses to cover 20% of each eligible recipient country’s population is fulfilled, Vietnam will inoculate nearly 16.5 million with 33 million doses. 95% of 750,000 teachers, 7,600,000 elders above 65 years old, 1,930,000 essential service workers, and 7,000,000 adults with chronic health issues are to be given the jabs.