US gifts Vietnam another 2.63 mln doses of Covid vaccine

By Minh Nga October 24, 2021 | 08:52 pm PT

Pfizer vaccine vials stored at the National Institute Of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi, October 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Over 1.31 million doses each of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine have arrived in HCMC and Hanoi, donations by the U.S. through Covax.

The U.S.’s sixth Covax consignment delivered to Vietnam took its total donations to 12.1 million doses, according to a U.S. Embassy's statement Monday. They also include the Moderna vaccine.

At the Global Covid-19 Summit last month U.S. President Joe Biden had promised to provide an additional 500 million Pfizer doses to 92 low- and middle-income countries and the African Union to take the U.S.’s total global commitment to more than 1.1 billion doses.

It has so far delivered more than 114 million doses to around 80 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, making it the largest donor, according to UNICEF data.

Around 51.8 million of Vietnam’s 96-million population have received at least one shot, and 21 million people have been fully vaccinated.