A batch of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrives in Vietnam. Over one million Covid-19 vaccine doses are expected to arrive in Vietnam late this month or early next month - PHOTO: VNA
HCMC – Vietnam will receive more than one million Covid-19 vaccine doses from the Covax Facility at the end of this month or early next month, said Dang Duc Anh of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
Anh said that the Government had added more people to the priority groups for Covid-19 vaccination, such as workers at industrial parks, news site VnExpress reported.
Next quarter, some two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that the Ministry of Health has bought from AstraZeneca through the Vietnam Vaccine JSC and three million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are expected to be shipped to Vietnam. However, the time of arrival may change.
To date, Vietnam has received nearly three million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses, including more than 2.5 million doses provided by Covax Facility and over 400,000 doses Vietnam had ordered from AstraZeneca.
As of June 15, local residents have received nearly 1.6 million doses. More than 59,600 people have got two doses.
Anh affirmed that vaccination was one of the most effective solutions to prevent dangerous infectious diseases and protect vaccinated people from getting worse or dying when infected. At present, no vaccines are 100% effective, so vaccinated people can still get infected.
If 70%-85% of the population is vaccinated, the transmission possibility in the community will be sharply reduced.
The existing Covid-19 vaccines have an efficacy rate of 60%-95% each. Therefore, the World Health Organization has recommended that vaccines are the only way to curb the pandemic.
The Ministry of Health on June 14 urged the Ministries of Public Security and National Defense and the governments of localities nationwide to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination and complete the job before June 18.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam will have more than 120 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Russia and the Covax Facility this year.
