Vietnam to receive bulk Covid-19 vaccine shipments in final quarter

More supplies of Covid-19 vaccines will be imported in the fourth quarter according to the Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

Pfizer vaccine arrives in Vietnam

Long said during an online meeting about Covid-19 prevention on August 2 that he had asked local authorities to speed up vaccination procedures. The vaccination progress at locked-down areas must be faster.

The number of vaccines that have arrived in Vietnam in the third quarter may not be much but a large number will arrive in the final quarter. Vietnam will receive 47-50 million doses of Pfizer.

"We should not be picky in choosing the vaccines," Long said. "All vaccines that have been approved by the Ministry of Health were also approved by WHO and in many other countries."

Vietnam has so far received over 17.6 million doses of vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Sputnik-V, and Sinopharm.

On August 1, 209,156 doses were given to the public. Vietnam has given a total of 6,415,219 doses of vaccines so far, of which 5,756,155 people have been given the first shots.

On July 31, three million doses of Covid-19 vaccines were allocated to HCM City which is estimated to be able to meet the demands of 22.3% of the adult residents.