CEO of Pfizer Albert Bourla said on Tuesday that the American pharmaceutical company will soon provide Vietnam with 22 million vaccine doses for children aged 5-11.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in phone talks with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Feb 15. Photo: Nhat Bac/ VGP

Bourla made the commitment at the phone talks with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on February 15.

He said Pfizer will closely follow the contract to provide vaccines for Vietnam at the earliest.

Notably, the Pfizer CEO said the company could transfer technology on Covid-19 drug production for Vietnam.

PM Chinh highly appreciated the suggestion, asking Pfizer to complete delivering the doses in April or May as the vaccination would enable children of such a group in Vietnam to return to school after months of restrictions.

Chinh thanked Pfizer for supplying 51 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines for Vietnam over the past time, including those for children of 12-17 years of age to enable them to attend in-person lessons at present.

According to the PM, nearly 96% of children aged 12-17 in Vietnam got the first doses and approximately 90% of them finished the second doses.

In early February 2022, Vietnam decided to buy 22 million doses of Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine to inoculate children of 5-11 years of age.

Vietnam has vowed to vaccinate children as it believes that vaccination is the key to reopening schools after the prolonged closure. The inoculation for 5-11 children remains voluntary but the health minister warned that more than 80% of critical cases and fatalities are unvaccinated or single dosed.

Upon the vaccination to children of 5-11 years of age, a number of parents expressed concerns over the side effects.

To reassure parents, the Ministry of Health has conducted a survey on more than 415,000 parents of children aged under 12. Results showed that 60.6% of them agreed to let their kids get Covid-19 vaccine shots.

Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine was approved for emergency use among children 5-11 years of age by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2021.

The authorization was based on the FDA’s thorough and transparent evaluation of the data that included input from independent advisory committee experts who overwhelmingly voted in favor of making the vaccine available to children in this age group.

The effectiveness of the vaccine shows that immune responses of children 5 through 11 years of age were comparable to those of individuals 16 through 25 years of age. In addition, the vaccine was found to be 90.7% effective in preventing Covid-19 in children 5 through 11.