The Politburo of the Communist Party, the country’s most powerful body, has agreed to buy vaccines amid a fresh cluster of coronavirus infections that strikes more than 10 cities and provinces.

Top leaders of Vietnam at a meeting on February 18. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

The decision was made on February 18 at the first meeting of the Politburo and the Secretariat, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s executing body that oversees the party’s daily issues.

Finance for the purchase would be sourced from the state budget and other legal expenditures, local media reported.

The purchase of vaccines is in line with law and warning by the World Health Organization (WHO) and producers, stressed the top bodies.

They also required speeding up the production of domestic vaccines whose adaption is accelerated for new Covid variants.

Fighting against Covid-19 is one of the focal points of the meeting and the key mission of Vietnam in the first quarter.

The meeting called for “Raising the highest level of vigilance towards Covid-19 and mobilizing the entire political system to the battle against the pandemic right in the beginning of 2021.”

At present, Covid-19 is spread to 13 out of 63 cities and provinces in Vietnam, recording 755 cases of local transmission since the resurgence of the virus on February 28.

In another move, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a Global Vaccination Plan and proposed that the Group of 20 (G20) set up an emergency task force to prepare the scheme.

Addressing a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on February 18, the UN chief said only 10 countries have administered 75% of all vaccinations while 130 countries have not received a single dose of vaccine.

He demanded a global effort to get all people in every nation inoculated as soon as possible.

“At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community,” he said, adding that “We must ensure that everybody, everywhere, can be vaccinated as soon as possible.”

He also urged the countries to not allow “usage of the vaccine as an excuse to violate human rights or fundamental freedoms.”

In a latest move, US President Joe Biden at G7 meeting Friday pledged US$4 billion to COVAX vaccine-sharing program, the global equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.