WORDS ON THE STREET 70th anniversary of Hanoi's Liberation Day Vietnam - Asia 2023 Smart City Summit Hanoi celebrates 15 years of administrative boundary adjustment 12th Vietnam-France decentrialized cooperation conference 31st Sea Games - Vietnam 2021 Covid-19 Pandemic
Home / News / Viet Nam
ASEAN to allot US$10.5M for vaccines
Linh Pham 12:20, 2021/02/19
The regional fund aims to protect medical professionals, healthcare workers, frontline workers, and the wider population of member countries.

ASEAN has agreed to allocate US$10.5 million in its Covid-19 Response Fund to buy vaccines for 10 member states under the equal allotment.

 Nguyen Quoc Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of Vietnam’s ASEAN delegation. Photo: Vietnam MOFA

The consensus was reached at the sixth meeting of the ASEAN Coordinating Council (ACC) Working Group on Public Health Emergencies (ACCWG-PHE) held virtually on February 18.

Speaking at the meeting, Nguyen Quoc Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of Vietnam’s delegation, expressed support for the vaccine purchase and stressed the need to identify in each country the vaccine types, demand, and the groups to be inoculated.

He appreciated ASEAN Chair 2021 Brunei’s proposal to utilize the WHO-led COVAX vaccine-sharing mechanism to meet ASEAN’s Covid-19 vaccine demand.

The Covid-19 ASEAN Response Fund, which was set up in 2020 under the Vietnam’s Chairmanship, has received commitments worth US$15 million from the bloc’s members and its partners.

As stipulated, the Covid-19 ASEAN Response Fund shall serve as a pool of financial resources to provide support to ASEAN member states in the detection, control and prevention of Covid-19 transmission and in protecting the safety of medical professionals, healthcare workers, frontline workers, and the wider population of member countries.

The fund shall be made equally accessible to all ASEAN member states for the purpose of, among others, procuring necessary medical supplies and equipment which may include but are not limited test kits/diagnostic tools; personal protective equipment, including gloves, medical masks, goggles, face shields, gowns, among others; essential medical supplies, including medicines and vaccines and other medical supplies and equipment for diagnostic and treatment procedures.

At the meeting, participants also pledged to soon operate the ASEAN Regional Reserve of Medical Supplies in case of emergency.

The member countries also agreed to soon build the ASEAN Travel Corridor, an initiative proposed by Indonesia, to facilitate essential travel of regional people amid uncertainties of the pandemic.

In addition, the bloc will soon operate the ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED) which gets support by Japan.

Regarding to recovery plans, the implementation of the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework is going smooth with 24 out of 193 initiatives completed and 127 others underway in 2021, including a to-be-established committee in charge of coordination and support for recovery efforts.

RELATED NEWS
TAG: ASEAN Covid Response Fund vaccine
Other news
14:37, 2024/10/30
Vietnam news in brief - October 30
Read The Hanoi Times news in brief to keep up to date with developments in Vietnam.
11:07, 2024/10/29
Vietnam news in brief - October 29
Read The Hanoi Times News in Brief for the latest country updates.
11:45, 2024/10/28
Vietnam news in brief - October 28
The Hanoi Times News in Brief keeps you up to date with the latest developments in the country.
15:40, 2024/10/27
Impression of EU Green Diplomacy Weeks in ASEAN 2024: Walk and green action events
The campaigns motivate stakeholders to take stronger actions to protect, preserve, and restore the environment, for now and future generations
11:48, 2024/10/26
Vietnam news in brief - October 26
Read The Hanoi Times for the latest developments in Vietnam
22:31, 2024/10/25
Vietnam, Russia to boost energy and oil cooperation
Vietnam and Russia seek further cooperation in the energy and oil sectors as key to furthering bilateral relations.