Vietnam is striving to accelerate the progress of Covid-19 vaccine research, Kinh Te & Do Thi reported.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister has asked the Ministry of Health to focus on coordinating with ministries and agencies to disseminate and guide the implementation of measures to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic in the new normal.

Vietnam’s research on Covid-19 vaccine is expected to end in October 2021.

Besides developing Covid-19 vaccines, the health ministry is tasked with strengthening international cooperation with countries which already have clinical trial results for  Covid-19 vaccines.

Remote medical examination and treatment delivery will be strengthened and expanded, and information technology will be widely applied to regularly support localities to improve the capacity of health workers, according to the prime minister’s instruction.

The Covid-19 vaccine research and development project in Vietnam has shown positive progress with a fairly high immune response to the vaccine antigens.

This is the outcome of the analysis by the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on two batches of serum samples. The vaccine proved to be highly immunogenic when tested in 50 mice, analyses of their serum samples by the institute’s researchers have shown.

Testing on mice is an important step in preparing vaccines for human trial, where researchers would be looking for an immune response after administration, according to Do Tuan Dat, director of developer Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech).

Dat said that Vietnamese scientists are working on developing a Covid-19 vaccine and plan to manufacture on a large scale.

Vietnam’s research on Covid-19 vaccine is expected to end in October 2021 after human trial succeeds, the director of Vabiotech added.

The firm is also waiting for global research results and the effectiveness of other candidate vaccines to draw experiences and apply them to Vietnam’s own efforts.

Vietnam has confirmed 1,063 Covid-19 infections so far, most of them have recovered with only 107 active cases left, and 35 deaths. No community transmission has been recorded in the past eleven days.