PM Chinh tells Pfizer to speed up delivery of children's Covid vaccine

In a telephone chat Tuesday with Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of the U.S. drug company, he said Vietnam has administered the Pfizer vaccine to children aged 12-17, with almost 90 percent of them getting two shots.

He urged Bourla to speed up delivery of the 22 million doses for which the Ministry of Health has signed a deal with the company, ideally completing it in April but no later than May.

He sought regular updates from Pfizer on its new vaccines and technology transfer to Vietnamese firms for making drugs to treat new strains of Covid.

He also thanked the company for selling 51 million doses of its vaccine so far.

Bourla assured the PM that his company would make an effort to speed up deliveries.

He also said Pfizer could transfer Covid drug technologies for production in Vietnam.

The U.S.'s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said last December that children aged 5 to 11 rarely have serious side effects after vaccination.

Myocarditis, a side effect the Pfizer vaccine causes in some adolescents and adults, "appears rare" among young children, it said.

More than 74.7 million out of Vietnam's 96-million people have been vaccinated with two doses, and more than 32.4 million have also got a third dose.