Vietnam is scheduled to receive 1.68 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine supported by the global vaccine sharing COVAX Facility on May 16.

First shipment of Covid-19 vaccine via COVAX Facility arrives in Vietam on April 1. Photo: Suckhoedoisong

News on the planned shipment arrival was confirmed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), according to Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long.

It will be the second batch of vaccine following the first shipment of 811,200 Covid-19 vaccine doses on April 1 via the COVAX Facility led by UNICEF, WHO (the World Health Organization), GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance), and CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations).

The Ministry of Health said the upcoming doses are expected to be allocated to all cities and provinces nationwide.

On the ground in each country, WHO and UNICEF are actively supporting national health systems to plan and deploy the vaccination, train health workers, improve their cold chain capacity, conduct monitoring, and raise public awareness and information on why vaccination is so important, according to UNICEF Vietnam.

On February 24, the first Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Vietnam. It’s a package of 117,000 doses purchased from AstraZeneca plc by Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC).

As of May 13, nearly 978,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered to Vietnam’s frontline forces.