HCMC receives 666,000 more Pfizer, AstraZeneca doses

The allocation of additional vaccines follows a Monday request by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health to the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The department asked for six million doses of vaccines by October-end so the city could fully immunize all 7.2 million adults.

The institute last Sunday had allocated the city 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

From Sept. 20 to Oct. 10, the city expects to require around 472,000 doses for the first shot and 5.6 million doses for the second.

Among the vaccines needed for the second shot are more than 4.9 million doses of either AstraZeneca or Pfizer and 624,000 Sinopharm doses.

Vietnam allows the mixing of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines if the receiver consents.

HCMC, epicenter of Vietnam’s fourth coronavirus wave, has been working on a plan to gradually reopen and allow fully vaccinated people to go out.

The city has administered more than 8.9 million doses, with more than 2.2 million people getting two shots.

Since the fourth wave emerged in late April, the city has recorded 358,707 local Covid-19 cases so far and almost 14,000 have died.