According to a recent Government resolution on the purchase and use of COVID-19 vaccines, Vietnam has set a target of having 150 million doses of vaccine to vaccinate 70% of the population. Up to now, "vaccine diplomacy" has achieved some concrete results.
Vietnam has supply commitments and signed contracts for a total of about 105 million doses, and is negotiating to buy 55 million doses.
Illustrative photo (Source: HNMO)
It has also actively advocated Governments and manufacturers to sell and speed up the delivery of vaccines to Vietnam. This advocacy is very important in the context of the current global shortage of vaccines. On the basis of active and drastic advocacy and negotiation, in just over a month, the number of vaccines Vietnam has received has increased significantly.
As of July 12, it has received more than 8 million doses of vaccine. In the near future, it will continue to receive more from countries and manufacturers that have agreed to transfer to it, as well as from support sources of bilateral partners and international organizations.
Recently, COVAX officially distributed to Vietnam an additional 1,065,870 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech between July and September 2021 (after transferring about 4.5 million doses so far); committed to give priority to Vietnam in the next allocations; delivered 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine provided by the US through COVAX on July 10; supported the transfer of technology to produce mRNA vaccines; sent experts to Vietnam to support research and production of vaccines that meet international standards and are recognized by the world; and is willing to cooperate with and support Vietnam to become one of the vaccine production centers in the region.
The US Government decided to urgently support 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine out of a total of 80 million doses the US committed to share with other countries through the COVAX mechanism; and put Vietnam on the priority list to receive vaccine aid. Pfizer delivered 97,000 doses on July 7, although according to the agreement, Pfizer will ship the first batch of vaccines to Vietnam in September 2021. US enterprises also signed technology transfer contracts with Vietnamese enterprises.
Japan supported Vietnam with 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine; and committed an additional 1 million doses expected to be delivered on July 16. This country is also willing to cooperate with Vietnamese enterprises in clinical trials, transfer and sale of vaccine production technology.
China donated 500,000 doses of Sinopharm's Vero Cell on June 20.
The UK committed to put Vietnam on the list of priority countries in its allocation of 100 million doses of vaccines through COVAX and bilaterally; and is ready to discuss with AstraZeneca about technology transfer and supporting Vietnam to build its own vaccine production capacity.
Australia committed to providing Vietnam with AUD13.5 million to buy vaccines through UNICEF and donated an additional 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca to be delivered from now until the end of 2021.
Russia donated 1,000 doses of Sputnik-V vaccine to Vietnam on March 16./.