01 April,2021 | Reuters Staff

Vietnam receives first batch of vaccines under COVAX scheme

Vietnam received 811000 doses of AstraZenecas COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday its first batch of vaccines under the global COVAX scheme following a week-long delay caused by limited supply.

HANOI Vietnam received 811000 doses of AstraZeneca&rsquos COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday its first batch of vaccines under the global COVAX scheme following a week-long delay caused by limited supply.

The Southeast Asian country which began its coronavirus vaccination programme last month is aiming to secure 30 million doses in total via the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.

Thursday&rsquos delivery took Vietnam&rsquos number of AstraZeneca doses to nearly 930000 so far but the country is looking to diversify its procurement from more sources including Pfizer Johnson & Johnson Moderna China&rsquos Sinovac and Russia&rsquos vaccine Sputnik V.

In a meeting with health minister Nguyen Thanh Long Russia&rsquos embassy in Hanoi on Wednesday offered to help Vietnam manufacture Sputnik V locally the health ministry said in a statement.

Long also said Vietnam would approve the Chinese vaccine within weeks after Sinovac submits the required documents. Vietnam is among only a few countries in Asia yet to use the Chinese vaccine.

Vietnam has been praised for its record in containing the virus through mass testing and tracing and strict quarantining which has kept its cases to just 2603 with 35 deaths. Nearly 50000 people have been vaccinated.

Thursday&rsquos shipment originally of 1.37 million doses was expected to be delivered by March 25 but was delayed due to supply shortages according to the United Nations&rsquo children&rsquos fund UNICEF which is handling the COVAX rollout in Vietnam.

Vietnam&rsquos first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine called Nanocovax is expected to be put into use in 2022.

Four Vietnamese companies are engaged in vaccine research and production and two are at the human trial stage.

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