Vietnam Not to Lack COVID-19 Vaccines This Year: Minister

Vietnam will not lack coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines for locals this year, with an estimated number of 90 million doses, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long affirmed at a meeting on February 24. Vietnam plans to receive 30 million doses from COVAX program, 30 million from the U.K.’s AstraZeneca PLC, and the latest one of 30 million from the U.S.’s Pfizer Inc. this year, Minister Long added. The health official pointed that Vietnam’s immunization system does not have enough conditions to store vaccines at super-cold temperatures like Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, proposing that the prime minister should allow the health ministry to allocate crowdfunding to speed up vaccine supply progress and coverage. He stated that the health ministry will supply 1.3 million doses in the first quarter of this year, 9.5 million in the second quarter, 25.9 million in the third quarter, and 51.1 million in the fourth quarter. He also revealed that the health ministry has been in negotiations with many countries to have more COVID-19 vaccines. It plans to discuss the licensing of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine with an estimated number of 50-60 million doses this week. The Ministry of Health estimated that the total cost of COVID-19 vaccines for the whole population is $1 billion. (VnExpress, vnexpress.net)