May 17, 2021 | 18:26 (GMT+7)
Vietnam receives second shipment of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX Facility
PANO - Vietnam received the second shipment of 1,682,400 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility on May 16.
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This second shipment will help the Vietnamese Ministry of Health to expand coverage and reach more people from the priority groups. |
This delivery of the vaccines comes in addition to a first batch delivered in April 2021 and is part of the 4.1 million vaccine doses committed to Vietnam, free of charge, by the COVAX Facility, the international partnership co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF as a delivery partner.
Since the arrival of the first shipment of vaccines from COVAX in April, more than 816,000 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Vietnam, mainly to health workers and other frontline workers. This new shipment will help the Ministry of Health to expand coverage and reach more people from the priority groups, while also providing a second dose to those who have already received the first dose.
The latest shipment of Vaxzevria vaccines (previously called COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca) was developed jointly by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. This batch is shipped from Catalent Biologics’ manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy. The Vaxzevria COVID-19 vaccine has been listed in the WHO Emergency Use Listing and has been used successfully in Vietnam since March 2021 under its previous name.
For several months, COVAX partners, CEPI, GAVI, WHO and delivery partner UNICEF, have been supporting the Government of Vietnam in readiness efforts and the national rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. They have been especially active in developing a National Vaccination Plan, as Vietnam is benefiting from the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). The AMC is an innovative financial mechanism to help secure global and equitable access for COVID-19 vaccines. |
Song Anh