A batch of 811,200 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses provided by Covax Facility arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on April 1. The Ministry of Health will be provided with over VND1.2 trillion to buy Covid-19 vaccines - PHOTO: VGP

HCMC – The Ministry of Health will be allocated more than VND1.2 trillion (US$52 million) sourced from the backup State budget for this year to buy Covid-19 vaccines.

On March 31, the prime minister asked the Ministries of Health and Finance to take responsibility for the accuracy of information and data relating to the job, news site VnExpress reported.

Specifically, the Ministry of Health must buy vaccines in line with the law and in a prompt, effective, economical and transparent manner. It was also assigned to quickly build and propose to the competent agencies to approve a general plan for Covid-19 prevention and control in 2021, which includes the import and use of 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines.

On April 1, a batch of 811,200 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses provided by the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi and was later transported to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for storage. Covax Facility will provide Vietnam with 30 million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses.

Vietnam expects to have 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine this year, comprising 30 million doses provided by Covax Facility and 30 million others ordered by Vietnam Vaccine JSC. On February 24, Vietnam received 117,600 doses and has injected nearly 50,000 people with the vaccine.

On March 23, the country approved Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.

As for locally-produced Covid-19 vaccines, Vietnam expects to complete the third phase of the human trial of Nano Covax, which is produced by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, at the end of September.