VietBF - Vietnam receives nearly 1.7 million more doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

A batch of 1,682,000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine sponsored by COVAX arrived in Vietnam on May 16, according to the Ministry of Health.

The entire shipment was transferred to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for preservation and testing before being distributed to localities for the third phase of vaccination.

This is the second batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine Vietnam has received under the United Nations administered COVAX Facility.

The first batch comprising 811,200 doses was delivered to Vietnam on April 1.

Vietnam is set to carry out the third phase of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the coming days.

Nearly one million people have been inoculated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the campaign was launched on March 3.

Most of the recipients were healthcare workers, members of anti-coronavirus community groups, members of local steering committees on COVID-19 prevention and control, and on-duty military servicemen and policemen.

AstraZeneca is one of the two coronavirus vaccines that has been approved for emergency use in Vietnam by the Ministry of Health.

Negotiations for the other vaccine, the Sputnik V, are underway.