TTO – Promoting foreign affairs on vaccines, Vietnam is approaching the target of 150 million doses, enough to supply 70% of the population according to Resolution 21/NQ-CP dated February 26, 2021 on purchasing. and use of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Japan and Australia are the latest countries to ship vaccines to Vietnam. This is the result of efforts to lobby governments and manufacturers to sell vaccines to Vietnam. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 13 said that up to now, Vietnam has received commitments and signed contracts for about 105 million doses of vaccines.
Of these, there are 38.9 million doses sponsored by COVAX global vaccine access program, 30 million doses of AstraZeneca under the contract signed with Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company VNVC. In addition, the Government has signed an agreement to supply 31 million doses with Pfizer of the US, and 5 million doses of Moderna of the US, authorizing Zuellig Pharma Vietnam. Currently, Vietnam is negotiating to buy another 55 million doses, including 40 million doses of Sputnik V negotiated by T&T Group with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and 15 million doses of Covaxin the Ministry of Health is negotiating with India.
The Department of State said that vaccine advocacy efforts are very important in the context of the current global shortage of vaccines. “On the basis of active and drastic lobbying and negotiation, in just over a month, the number of vaccines we have received has increased significantly,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement on July 13 said. As of July 12, Vietnam has received about 8 million doses of vaccine, and in the near future will continue to receive more from negotiated sources that countries and manufacturers agree to deliver soon, as well as from sources. support from bilateral partners and international organizations.
Vaccine diplomacy, according to the State Department, has achieved some results. Specifically, COVAX officially continued to allocate an additional 1,065,870 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech to Vietnam during the period from July to September 2021. Previously, COVAX had transferred to Vietnam about 4.5 million doses, and committed to give priority to Vietnam in the next allocations. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in addition to the emergency support of 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine for Vietnam as mentioned, the US also put Vietnam on the priority list to receive vaccine aid. The UK is also committed to putting Vietnam on the list of priority countries when considering allocating 100 million doses of UK vaccines to support countries through COVAX and bilaterally. Similarly, Japan has so far committed to supporting Vietnam with 3 million doses of AstraZeneca, including 1 million doses expected to be delivered on July 16.
Australia has committed to providing Vietnam with AUD 13.5 million to buy vaccines through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and donate an additional 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca from now until the end of 2021. China donated 500,000 doses of Sinopharm’s Vero Cell on June 20, and Russia donated 1,000 doses of Sputnik V to Vietnam from March 16.