Bilateral sources account for lion's share of Vietnam's Covid vaccines: WHO

By Tri Duc December 2, 2021 | 07:32 pm PT

A girl receives a Covid-19 vaccine shot in Da Nang, November 2, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong

Vietnam had received 135.81 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, two thirds of them through bilateral deals, the World Health Organization said.

A deal for 30 million doses has been signed by the Vietnam Vaccine JSC with AstraZeneca PLC, and the first batch arrived in February.

Another for five million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by the state-owned Saigon Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Sapharco) worth $45 million saw the first batch arrive in July.

Other sources include foreign governments who have donated 17 million doses, or 12 percent.

The non-bilateral sources include 28.01 million doses under the Covax mechanism, accounting for 21 percent of vaccine supply to Vietnam.

Covid-19 vaccines supply and deployment in Vietnam as of Nov. 28, 2021. Graphics by WHO

WHO said 19.04 million doses under Covax and 6.7 million doses from other countries are set to be delivered.

Vietnam started its Covid-19 vaccination campaign in early March and has administered more than 125 million shots, with 52.7 million people getting two doses, or 54.7 percent of the population, according to the Health Ministry.

There have been over 1.26 million Covid infections so far with 25,658 deaths and 234,409 others now under treatment.