US to share 7 mln Covid vaccine doses with Asia, including Vietnam

In a Thursday statement from the White House, the U.S. said it pledged to share at least 80 million U.S. Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of June to end the pandemic.

A total 75 percent of those doses would be distributed through Covax, while the rest would be directly donated to certain countries in need or experiencing surges in new coronavirus infections, the statement read.

For the U.S.'s first Covid-19 vaccine batch of 25 million doses, 19 million would be shared through Covax to certain countries and entities in South and Central America, Asia and Africa. The other six million doses would be targeted toward regional priorities and partner recipients of the U.S., including Mexico, Canada, South Korea and Haiti.

The statement did not specify exactly what types of Covid-19 vaccines would be shared with the world.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday to seek U.S. support in sourcing Covid-19 vaccines and research to produce its own.

Vietnam has been using a vaccine by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca for its Covid-19 inoculation program, under which over 1.1 million people have received shots since March 8.

On Thursday, it approved a Covid-19 vaccine by Sinopharm for emergency use, the third vaccine to be approved after Russia's Sputnik V and AstraZeneca’s.

The country aims to secure about 150 million vaccine doses this year to cover 70 percent of its population.