Tuesday, 05/01/2021 17:35 (GMT+7)
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health is negotiating with the UK, the US, Russia and China on COVID-19 vaccines, said Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong during a press conference of the Government on January 4.
Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong (Photo: VGP)
The latest results showed that the Ministry of Health had negotiated and signed with the British company AstraZeneca, ensuring to inject 15 million people with 30 million doses. Particularly with the Russian vaccine, the Ministry of Health is negotiating to be able to produce the vaccine under Russian technology transfer at a company affiliated to the Ministry of Health.
"Currently, the negotiation of vaccine purchase depends on many factors such as availability, price, storage conditions, payment conditions and delivery conditions,” Deputy Minister Cuong said. “Another condition is clinical work, especially the present vaccines’ protection efficiency which ranges from 65% - 94.5%.”
Therefore, the Deputy Minister of Health said that the ministry was collecting consultancy from ministries and branches to report to the Government, and if necessary, it would seek the opinion of the Politburo.
Apart from the commercial vaccines, the leader of the Ministry of Health also said that Vietnam, as one of the 90 members of the COVAX Facility, will buy vaccines from some companies for distribution to 90 countries, including Vietnam. “At that time, the country will be allocated an amount of vaccines for some 16% of the population at the cheapest price possible,” Deputy Minister Cuong went on to say.
Talking about domestic COVID-19 vaccines, Deputy Minister Cuong said that Vietnam’s NanoCovax vaccines are under the process of clinical trials with 3 doses of 25 mcg, 50 mcg and 75 mcg. Currently, volunteers for the vaccine are in normal and stable health condition. The vaccine’s immunity is expected to be assessed by the end of this year./.
Compiled by BTA