Germany hands Vietnam 850,000 Covid vaccine doses

"Germany stands with Vietnam in fighting and overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic. We can only defeat the pandemic if it is brought under control everywhere. Therefore, Germany and the European Union support the Covax vaccination campaign for fair and transparent access to Covid-19 vaccines worldwide," German Ambassador to Vietnam, Guido Hildner, was quoted in a German Embassy statement.

Kidong Park, World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Vietnam, said: "Given the challenging pandemic situation in the country now, we continue to advocate for the government to prioritize vaccination of health care workers and frontline workers, the elderly, people with co-morbidities and those who are at highest risk of severe diseases or death."

In late April, Vietnam was hit by the fourth Covid-19 wave, by far the most challenging the nation has ever faced.

So far in the wave, 641,245 cases have been recorded along with 16,151 deaths.

With the latest delivery of vaccines donated by Germany, Vietnam has received more than 12.57 million vaccine doses via the Covax initiative, co-led by the WHO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), GAVI - the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF as a key delivery partner.

Vietnam aims to receive 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate 70 percent of its 96-million population in order to achieve herd immunity by April next year.

By the end of August, Vietnam had received 33 million doses from different sources, including government aid and commercial contracts secured by the Health Ministry and local firms.

Up until Wednesday, more than 31.2 million people have been vaccinated, with over 5.8 million getting two doses.