France, Italy donate 1.4 mln vaccine doses to Vietnam

France provided 672,000 doses and Italy 812,060 doses, according to a press release by UNICEF Vietnam.

French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery said France's support aimed to demonstrate its solidarity with Vietnam in the pandemic, a statement echoed by Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro, who stated Italy stood close to Vietnam and its people in the fight against Covid-19.

At a handover ceremony in Hanoi on Tuesday, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung said France and Italy's donations, as well as those via global vaccine access mechanism Covax, were appreciated for ensuring equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.

Vietnam has so far received over 11.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses via Covax. The country has vaccinated over 30 million people with at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose, and around 5.5 million people have been fully inoculated.

Vietnam aims to secure 150 million doses to vaccinate 70 percent of its 96 million population by next year.