The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Over 1.2 million more AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses arrived in Vietnam on August 19 - PHOTO: NLDO

HCMC – The AstraZeneca Group on August 19 shipped an additional 1.209 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam.

This is the ninth vaccine shipment that AstraZeneca has sent to Vietnam under a contract with the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), taking the total number of AstraZeneca doses delivered to the country under the purchase contract of the 30 million doses to over 6.7 million.

Until now, Vietnam had taken delivery of some 14.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine through the VNVC contract with AstraZeneca, the COVAX Facility and donations from other countries, accounting for 62% of the total volume of vaccines in the country.

In the next two months, some 20 million doses are set to arrive in Vietnam, said Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan.

The country has administered some 16 million Covid vaccine doses, with over 1.5 million people receiving both shots, the local media reported.

Speaking on the phone with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the same day, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot committed to supplying Vietnam with the vaccine doses on schedule and increasing the volume of doses in August.