90,000 Pfizer vaccine doses headed for Vietnam

The ministry also said that it expects three million doses of Covid-19 vaccines developed by American firm Pfizer and Germany BioNTech Inc. to be delivered in the third quarter and 27-28 million doses in the fourth quarter. The purchase of these vaccines is being funded by the state budget.

In May, the ministry had negotiated and signed a contract with Pfizer to purchase 31 million doses. On June 12, the ministry approved the vaccine for emergency use.

This is the fourth Covid-19 vaccine to be urgently approved by Vietnam, after AstraZeneca (U.K.), Sputnik V (Russia) and Sinopharm (China).

The ministry said that about eight million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have reached Vietnam, mostly through the Covax, a global mechanism for developing, manufacturing and procuring Covid-19 vaccine candidates and help member countries access vaccines as they become available. Vietnam has garnered commitments for the supply of 105 million doses from different sources.

The country is negotiating for an additional 45 million doses, aiming to secure 150 million vaccine doses this year to cover 70 percent of the population. It is projected the majority of Covid-19 vaccine shipments will arrive in September and October.

Vietnam has been using the AstraZeneca vaccine for its inoculation program thus far. Over 3.6 million people have been vaccinated to date, of which more than 204,000 have received two shots.