14TH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM

Czech donates Vietnam 250,000 vaccine doses

Minh Vu

Aug 30, 2021 / 03:52 PM

The Czech Republic will provide Vietnam with medical supplies.

Vietnam on August 30 received Czech-donated 210,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses and 40,800 Moderna doses worth US$1.3 million.

The batch arrived in Hanoi on August 28 under the support of United Parcel Service (UPS) Inc.

Chargé d'Affaires of the Czech Embassy in Hanoi Lukas Musil (L), Vietnam's Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong (C), and Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung at the handover ceremony on August 30. Photo: MoH

Chargé d'Affaires of the Czech Embassy in Hanoi Lukas Musil handed over the doses to Vietnamese Deputy Health Minister Truong Quoc Cuong.

“We have always supported each other. At the time when Czech was making efforts to fight the pandemic last year, the Vietnamese community in Czech in different ways supported the anti-pandemic fight. Vietnam is a priority in the Czech Republic’s vaccine support policy. We are always willing to assist Vietnam in the fight against Covid-19,” Musil said at the ceremony, adding that the Central European country will provide Vietnam with more medical supplies in the future.

Chargé d'Affaires of the Czech Embassy in Hanoi Lukas Musil at the meeting with Vietnam's health officials on August 30. Photo: MoH

“The support is a source of encouragement for Vietnam’s pandemic fight and it’s even more meaningful when Vietnam and the Czech Republic commemorate the 71st anniversary of the bilateral relations,” Vietnamese Deputy Minister Cuong said.

So far, Vietnam has received 27 million vaccine doses from both donation and purchase. The vaccines are of different kinds namely 17 million AstraZeneca doses, five million Moderna doses, more than three million Pfizer doses, 2.5 million Sinopharm doses, and 12,000 Sputnik V doses.

As of August 29, Vietnam has administered more than 19.7 million doses, including 2.4 million fully vaccinated. In another word, it has covered 23% of inhabitants aged above 18 with the first jab.

The country is grappling with the fresh outbreak that has spread 62 out of 63 cities and provinces, causing more than 435,000 infections, including 10,749 deaths. The country’s death rate is 2.5%, a little bit higher than the world’s average of 2.1%.