3 mln Moderna vaccine doses reach Vietnam

By Long Nguyen   July 24, 2021 | 06:25 pm PT
Three million Moderna vaccine doses donated by the U.S. under the Covax facility arrived in Vietnam on Saturday, UNICEF Vietnam said in a statement.
Moderna vaccine doses donated by the U.S. arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, July 24, 2021. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Moderna vaccine doses donated by the U.S. arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, July 24, 2021. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City.

Of the doses, 1,499,960 arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday night and the rest will arrive in Hanoi on Sunday.

U.S. Consul General in HCMC Marie Damour said: "We are proud to be able to assist Vietnam with more U.S. vaccines, especially with the delivery of nearly 1.5 million of the total doses directly to Ho Chi Minh City, the current epicenter of Vietnam’s fast-growing outbreak," according to a statement by the consulate.

This is the second batch of the vaccines to arrive in Vietnam this month, taking total donations from the U.S. to more than five million doses.

These are part of 80 million doses that U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to donate to various countries, more than half of it under Covax.

Vietnam is a beneficiary of U.S. donations being made under Covax as well as under "regional priorities and other recipients."

As of Sunday, Vietnam has received 7.49 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines through the Covax program - 5 million doses of Moderna and 2.49 million doses of AstraZeneca.

Moderna vaccines donated by the U.S. arrive in Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi on July 10, 2021. Photo courtesy of UNICEF.

Moderna vaccines donated by the U.S. arrive in Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi on July 10, 2021. Photo courtesy of UNICEF.

Vietnam approved emergency use of the Moderna vaccine last month.

Five other vaccines approved for emergency are: Russia's Sputnik V, the U.S. and Germany's Pfizer/BioNTech, China's Sinopharm, and British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca's vaccine and the U.S.'s Johnson & Johnson.

Moderna is developed from messenger RNA, or mRNA, which contains instructions for human cells to construct a harmless piece of the coronavirus called the spike protein that triggers an immune response in humans.

The Moderna vaccine is being used by some 53 countries and territories including the U.S., Canada, the European Union, the U.K., Israel and Singapore.

According to the Ministry of Health, about 105 million vaccine doses have been committed to Vietnam from various sources so far.

Vietnam launched a mass vaccination program in March, using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

More than 4.1 million have received their first Covid-19 vaccine shots and 372,353 have received two shots.

Vietnam plans to inoculate 70 percent of its population of 96 million by April next year.

 
 
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