1.1 mln AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrive in Vietnam

By Thu Anh August 13, 2021 | 02:15 am PT

An employee of the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) transports a batch of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine into cold storage, August 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Luu Hoa

A batch of 1,113,400 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses arrived in HCMC Friday morning under a contract signed with the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC).

The batch is the eighth delivered to Vietnam under the contract between AstraZeneca and VNVC for the supply of 30 million vaccine doses.

The consignment landed at the Tan Son Nhat Airport and have been placed in cold storage. They would be handed over to the Health Ministry for distribution, the VNVC said.

VNVC has so far received over 5.5 million vaccine doses, and batches have kept coming every week from July 9. The first two batches came in February and May.

Vietnam has received over 19 million Covid-19 vaccine doses so far, through contracts, global vaccine access mechanism Covax or foreign aid.

The country has administered over 12 million people with at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. Over a million have been fully vaccinated.

Vietnam aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 96 million population by next year, procuring at least 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for the purpose.