Vietnam should exchange anti-pandemic experience: COVAX

Vietnam should promote exchanging experience against Covid-19 with other countries, Aurélia Nguyen, Managing Director of the COVAX Facility at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has shared today [March 3].

An online meeting between Vietnam and the COVAX Facility on Mar 3. Photos: Nhat Bac/VGP

At the online meeting with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, she highly appreciated the country’s achievements in the inoculation campaign that gets great support from the COVAX. 

Obviously, the high vaccination rate has enabled Vietnam to make impressive results in socio-economic development, shifting from the negative growth in the third quarter of 2021 to a growth rate of 5.22% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Aurélia Nguyen said COVAX had published an article about Vietnam’s success in vaccination and its vaccine coverage rate, suggesting that the model should be disseminated.

At the meeting, she highlighted the effective cooperation between Vietnam and the COVAX, saying COVAX is committed to continuing supporting Vietnam on vaccination, including those against new strains and sharing information on immunization for children, and boosting tech transfer in vaccine production.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the meeting.

For his part, PM Chinh thanked the global vaccine sharing scheme and Aurélia Nguyen for their valuable assistance to Vietnam over the past time. So far, Vietnam has received 53 million doses from COVAX.

He expected to get more COVAX support in vaccinating children aged 5-11 and tech transfer of mRNA vaccines following initiatives by the World Health Organization (WHO) and COVAX.

According to Chinh, Vietnam is now one of the countries with the highest vaccination rate. As many as 195 million doses have been administered, resulting in the vaccination coverage in 98% of adults aged above 18; 94% of children aged 12-17 are double dosed while it targets to complete administering the booster shots in March and considers the fourth jabs.

On this occasion, Chinh invited Aurélia Nguyen to visit Vietnam as a guest of the Prime Minister to promote the cooperation plans. In a tweet, she described Vietnam as “an invaluable partner.”

This is the second talk that the Vietnamese PM held with the COVAX Managing Director following the first in September 2021 and the third time he talked with her, including an in-person meeting in November 2021 in France. Interestingly, Aurélia Nguyen was the first person that PM Chinh met when reaching France for his official visit.

Representatives of WHO Vietnam, UNICEF, and international organizations shoulder with Vietnam in the vaccination campaign. Photo: WHO Vietnam