Vietnam is likely to get access to between 4.89 and 8.25 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine within the first quarter under the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme that ensures global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines amid thin supply.

Vietnam begins human trial of homemade Covid-19 vaccines in December 2020. Source: MOH

About one third of the total doses will be delivered before the end of March and the remaining in the second quarter, according to an official from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Vietnam is among 190 participants of the COVAX Facility and one of countries getting the initial vaccine rollout, the government portal cited Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, director of the WHO’s Division of Programs for Disease Control.

COVAX is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual Covid-19 vaccines co-led by the Vaccine Alliance Gavi, the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to the WHO’s COVAX Interim Distribution Forecast as of February 3, 2021, roughly 336 million doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will be delivered to 145 participants in the first and second quarters 2021.

Building on the principles of fairness, transparency and equity for this exceptional early delivery allocation process, around 3.3% of the total population of the 145 participants are expected to receive doses from at least one manufacturer. This is in line with the facility target to reach at least 3% population coverage in all countries in the first half of the year, enough to protect the most vulnerable groups such as health care workers.

Vietnam, which suffers the ongoing wave of locally-transmitted infections of Covid-19, reports 1,985 cases and death remains 35.

The country has made outstanding results in containing the virus in 2020 thanks to four key measures named by the Vaccine Alliance Gavi. It include quick strategic testing, aggressive contact tracing, effective public communications campaigns, and swift development of testing kits.

These four factors are a crucial part of Vietnam’s Covid-19 success story. Time will tell if these measures continue to keep the number of people infected down, but it seems likely, Gavi noted.