HCMC may purchase 10 million Covid vaccine doses this year

Duong Anh Duc, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, said 5-10 million vaccine doses would arrive in the city through direct negotiations with manufacturers, without any third party involved. The exact terms of these contracts would be announced in further detail once signed, he added.

So far, the southern metropolis has received nearly a million vaccine doses from the central government.

HCMC’s ongoing Covid-19 vaccination campaign, expected to end June 27, would administer around 200,000 vaccine shots a day across 650 checkpoints. About half would be given to workers and managers at industrial parks and high-tech areas to ensure an uninterrupted production chain, amounting to around 340,000 people.

By the time the campaign ends, around 6 percent of the HCMC population would have received Covid-19 vaccine shots, said Deputy Director of the Municipal Department of Health, Nguyen Hoai Nam.

"The city would strive to secure enough vaccine doses to cover two thirds of the population, amounting to around seven million people, this year," Nam said.

Vietnam’s mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign since March has inoculated more than 2.4 million shots, fully vaccinated 121,683 people, using a Covid-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca, which requires two shots. The country aims to secure 150 million vaccine doses to cover 70 percent of its population this year.