First doses [811,200] of Covid-19 vaccines under the COVAX Facility was delivered to Vietnam on April 1 thanks to efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
| First shipment of COVAX vaccines delivered to Vietnam on April 1. Photos: UNICEF and WHO |
UNICEF has delivered the shipment to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), saying it’s working with COVAX partners to facilitate timely and equitable access to vaccines.
| Dr Kidong Park, WHO Representative in Vietnam (from left), UN Resident Coordinator Kamal Malhotra, and UNICEF Representative in Vietnam Rana Flowers at the hand-over ceremony. |
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam previously accepted the Covid-19 vaccines from the global Covid-19 vaccine sharing COVAX Facility, acknowledging the contribution of WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, CEPI, donors and partners who contributed to the deployment of vaccines to Vietnam.
| Representatives of Vietnam and international organizations at the hand-over ceremony on April 1. |
COVAX aims to supply vaccines for at least 20% of the population of each participating country this year. In this first round of vaccine allocation, all COVAX participating countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate between 2.2% and 2.6% of their population.
| Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at the hand-over ceremony. |
The next batch of COVAX vaccine for Vietnam is scheduled in May with 3.36 million and the following shipments are expected to take place at the end of this year.
| Covid-19 vaccine under the COVAX Facility arrives in Vietnam. |
Vietnam received the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine [117,000 doses] which was imported from British-Swedish AstraZeneca plc on February 24.
So far, the first vaccine have been administered to roughly 50,000 local people who are of frontline forces like doctors, health workers.
