Viet Nam receives an additional 6.27 million Covid-19 vaccine doses
On January 25th, Viet Nam received an additional 6.27 million Covid-19 vaccine doses donated by the Government of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the UK, all through the COVAX Facility.
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| Viet Nam received an additional 6.27 million Covid-19 vaccine doses. (Source: UNICEF) |
On January 25th, Viet Nam received 4,000,230 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Germany, 99,450 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's vaccine donated by the Government of Luxembourg, 159,120 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's vaccine donated by the Government of Portugal and 2,012,960 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine donated by the UK, all through the COVAX Facility.
The British Ambassador to Viet Nam, Mr. Gareth Ward said: “Vaccines are the best way to protect people and prevent the proliferation of new variants. This donation is part of the UK’s support to Viet Nam’s roadmap of opening the economy by facilitating its vaccine boosting at a large scale. We are committed to accompanying Viet Nam to embrace a new chapter in 2022 when we all can live with Covid-19 with peace and prosperity again".
The UK is currently one of the largest donors to the COVAX Facility, providing over £548 million to supply vaccines globally, including Viet Nam. This contribution also marks the third bilateral vaccine commitment by the UK Government to Viet Nam after the arrival of more than 727,000 doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2021.
In 2022, the UK will continue to strengthen the bilateral health partnership by supporting Viet Nam to build a resilient health system through providing vaccines and medical supplies, and by facilitating knowledge exchange opportunities between the two countries.
Representing the Embassy of Luxembourg to Viet Nam, the Honorary Consul in Ha Noi, Mr. Tran Hong Quang, stressed that “no one should be left behind in the fight against Covid-19”. A longstanding supporter of global vaccination efforts, Luxembourg actively engages in multilateral initiatives such as COVAX.
In late 2021, Luxembourg doubled its financial contributions to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment to 4 million EUR in order to support the procurement of vaccines around the world and mitigate the effects of the two-track pandemic.
Luxembourg’s support to immunization programs in Viet Nam in fact date back to the 1990’s and the development of a nationwide vaccine cold chain. B Medical System, the leading manufacturer and distributor of cold chain equipment, has since delivered more than 30.000 blood and vaccine cold chain units. An additional 174 refrigerators arrived in June 2021 through Gavi and UNICEF funded projects which will assist with the storage of vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccine.
Representing the Embassy of Portugal to Viet Nam, the Honorary Consul in Ha Noi, Mr. Tran Kim Chung said: “In 2021, Portugal donated nearly 160,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Viet Nam through COVAX Facility. This action showed the solidarity with Viet Nam in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic. With the current development of Omicron, the pandemic will be far from ended. Portugal will continue to support Viet Nam in health sector to respond to the challenges caused by the pandemic and to ensure the equitable access of vaccines for Vietnamese people”.
The German Ambassador to Viet Nam, Dr. Guido Hildner, said: “Germany has donated vaccines and medical equipment to Viet Nam on several occasions in 2021. With this new shipment of over 4 million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine via COVAX, Germany continues its ongoing support to Viet Nam to fight and overcome the Covid-19 pandemic".
According to the Ambassador, the continued high numbers of infections, as well as the Omicron variant spreading at a rapid pace worldwide, show that the pandemic is far from being defeated. In 2022, Germany will continue to show solidarity with Viet Nam in the fight against the effects of the pandemic and provide further vaccines through the international vaccine platform COVAX.
"We can only defeat the pandemic if it is brought under control everywhere. Therefore, Germany and the European Union support the COVAX vaccine campaign for fair and transparent access to vaccines Covid-19 worldwide", he said.
The recent delivery is the largest German donation of vaccine doses to Viet Nam to date, bringing the total number of vaccines supplied by Germany to Viet Nam to over 10 million doses.
Ms. Lesley Miller, OIC Representative of UNICEF Viet Nam said: "On behalf of the UN Family, I would like to thank the Government and people of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom for ensuring this timely, and important contribution of the vaccine to Viet Nam. The donation of vaccines from generous countries is proving an essential contribution to the equitable distribution of both initial and booster doses to populations around the world. Nevertheless, still more is needed, and the virus will continue its unpredictable path of mutation and waves of complex outbreaks, until all countries achieve strong vaccination coverage.
According to Ms. Lesley Miller, Viet Nam has proven itself highly efficient in the safe delivery of vaccines, ensuring they are utilized effectively. The Governments who have supported and continue to support COVAX, both financially and through vaccine donations are change makers in the fight against this pandemic.
With the delivery of vaccines donated by the Government of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom, Viet Nam has received 51,024,180 doses of vaccines via the COVAX Facility.
(Soucre: UNICEF)
