Health ministry receives four million doses of COVID-19 vaccines

Speaking at the handover ceremony held at the ministry’s headquarters in Hanoi this morning (May 21), Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long expressed his sincere thanks to the banking sector and the businesses for their timely support in the fight against COVID-19.

According to Long, under the direction of the Politburo, the Secretariat, the Government, the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Response and the Ministry of Health, along with the consensus and participation of the whole political system, Vietnam has wiped out three previous COVID-19 infection waves and is gradually bringing the current fourth wave under.

The guiding view of the Politburo and the Government is how to help Vietnam access the COVID-19 vaccines as quickly as possible and ensure the widest access for the population, Long said, adding that over the past year, his ministry has strengthened efforts to seek and negotiate for early access to vaccine sources.

So far in 2021, there have been about 110 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines committed to Vietnam, including 38.9 million doses from the COVAX Facility, 30 million doses from AstraZeneca and 31 million from Pfizer/BioNTech.

In addition, the Ministry of Health has registered with COVAX the purchase of about 10 million more doses under a cost-sharing mechanism, Long said, adding that having enough vaccines is very important to switch from “defence” to proactively “attacking” the epidemic, as well as bringing life back to normal soon and boosting the country's economic development.

The minister affirmed that in order to ensure 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines immunise 75% of Vietnam's population under the direction of the Politburo and the Government, his ministry is continuing its efforts to maximise access to ensure enough vaccines are available to serve the people's vaccination needs.

In response to the Prime Minister's call, the State Bank of Vietnam, along with several commercial banks and corporations, have made donations to support the fund purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, as part of their efforts to repel the pandemic and bringing life back to normal.