Vietnam on October 2 received an additional 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine directly from the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and delivered through the COVAX Facility.

A batch of US-donated vaccines arrives in Vietnam. Photo: UNICEF

This delivery, which follows three previous shipments, lifts the total donated amount to 7.5 million doses.

Since the start of the pandemic, the US has committed more than US$26.7 million in Covid-19 related assistance to Vietnam.

The US and Vietnam continue to build on their longstanding cooperation with more than $1 billion of US investment in Vietnam’s health infrastructure to strengthen Vietnam’s capacity to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the US Embassy in Hanoi.

So far, Vietnam has received nearly 12 million doses from dozens of donors namely the US, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Rumania, Czech, Hungary, Belgium, and Slovakia via the COVAX Facility.

At the Global Covid-⁠19 Summit on September 22, President Biden announced bold new commitments from the United States to supply an additional 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, bringing the US's commitment of donated vaccines to the total of over 1.1 billion.

Worldwide, the US has provided more than 160 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to more than 100 countries.

Covid-19 response and health security are part of the US new support worth $100 million to Vietnam that was announced during the Hanoi visit in late August paid by Vice President Kamala Harris.

Through the American Rescue Plan Act, USAID is continuing to support Vietnam’s Covid-19 response to help accelerate equitable access to and delivery of safe and effective doses of Covid-19 vaccine, strengthen Vietnam’s health system to respond to Covid-19, and build capacity to detect and monitor Covid-19 and future disease threats.

It will enable the Vietnam Red Cross to extend its emergency response program in central Vietnam to reduce the impacts and prevent the spread of Covid-19 in flood-affected communities.