HCMC receives one million Sinopharm vaccine doses

This was the first batch out of five million doses of Vero Cell that Saigon Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Sapharco) had negotiated with partner Sinopharm, the Health Ministry stated.

Earlier, the ministry licensed the Ho Chi Minh City-based firm to import five million doses of Sinopharm to speed up its vaccination campaign.

The vaccine, called Vero Cell, is produced by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co. Ltd.

Vietnam approved emergency use of the vaccine on June 4.

In a press release issued by Sinopharm in Vietnam in late May, the Chinese company stated Vero Cell efficacy was estimated at 79.34 percent.

HCMC, epicenter of the ongoing wave, will receive about 13.8 million doses of Covid vaccines this year, ensuring 99 percent of people over 18 would be inoculated. In August alone, the city is expected to have around five million of these doses.

So far, the city of more than 7.2 million people of 18 years or older has vaccinated 1.5 million people.

The southern metropolis has recorded more than 88,500 cases in the wave that hit Vietnam in late April while the city’s health authorities said 815 have died since June, though most fatalities have yet to be officially confirmed by the Health Ministry.