Ho Chi Minh City to buy five million Moderna Covid-19 vaccine doses
Vice-chairman of HCM City People's Committee Duong Anh Duc on August 11 sent an urgent official document to the Ministry of Health to ask for some regulations on the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.
In the document, Duc said that they had introduced some local firms to negotiate with Moderna Vaccine producers on the purchase of five million Moderna doses following PM Minister Vu Duc Dam's approval.
"Negotiations are under way and one of the firms has signed a contract with Moderna producers on the supply of the five million doses," the document said. "They asked Moderna to send at least two million doses to Vietnam by October. Some other firms have also joined in the negotiation and set a target to purchase at least 10 million more doses in the second quarter of 2022."
Besides proposing to the ministry to allow the joining of private firms in the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines, Ho Chi Minh City also urged for the issuing of instructions on the pricing of paid vaccination services.
Vietnam is now offering free Covid-19 vaccination to its citizens. The vaccination is managed by the Ministry of Health at a rather low rate. As of Thursday morning, the country conducted over 12.10 million Covid-19 vaccine shots, with over one million people having received two doses.
The epicentre of Ho Chi Minh City has so far received over 4.1 million Covid-19 vaccine doses out of 19 million available in Vietnam, and has administered 3.4 million doses. The city is carrying out vaccination day and night and is predicted to finish the allocated vaccines by August 12.
On Wednesday, the ministry allowed Ho Chi Minh City to use the batch of one million doses of Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine Vero Cell for its current vaccination campaign. The city aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its residents aged 18 and above within this month.
