A batch of 288,000 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses arrived in Vietnam on May 25 at night.

This is the second batch of Covid-19 vaccine under a 30 million dose purchase contract that the Ministry of Health and the Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company (VNVC) have reached with AstraZeneca Vietnam, according to the heath ministry.

The country began a public vaccination program on March 8, prioritizing frontline workers against Covid-19 like doctors, nurses, soldiers, and police officers. Over one million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 disease so far.

Vietnam has administered local residents 1,034,072 doses. Photo: Thai Binh

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that with two other batches handed over through global vaccine access mechanism COVAX, Vietnam has so far received around 2.9 million doses of the British-Swedish vaccine.

Vietnam is one of 92 countries to have received the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from the COVAX program, which aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Chief Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Vietnam Rana Flowers said COVAX still guarantees the provision of over four million vaccine doses to Vietnam by the end of May despite supply shortage.

The accurate date for the shipment will only be confirmed 24 hours before it arrives, Rana Flowers added.

Regarding vaccine prices under COVAX, she said UNICEF is able to negotiate with the manufacturers to buy the vaccine at prices much cheaper than the market prices offered to countries. Prices vary between the vaccines. However, she did not have a clear and precise figure.

Vietnam has so far received about 117,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses for its mass Covid-19 inoculation program of the 30 million doses ordered from the producer.

The country seeks to secure 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses this year to immunize 70% of its population. It expects to start producing its own Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year, according to the health ministry.