Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The first shipment of 97,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is set to arrive at Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport in Vietnam tomorrow, July 7 - PHOTO: VNA

HCMC - The first shipment of 97,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is set to arrive at Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport in Vietnam tomorrow, July 7.

Nguyen Nam Lien, head of the Health Ministry’s Planning-Finance Department, said on July 5 that the ministry was preparing to take delivery of the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which would be stored at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

Some three million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will be shipped to Vietnam in the third quarter of 2021, while up to 28 million doses of the vaccine will arrive in the country in the fourth quarter of the year, said Lien.

Earlier in May, the Ministry of Health signed a deal to buy 31 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. On June 12, the ministry also approved the Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Vietnam.

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, which is given by intramuscular injection, is produced at Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium NV, Belgium and BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH, Germany. The vaccine is being used in the United States and Europe, the local media reported.

This is the third vaccine to be shipped to Vietnam, after the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines.

A representative of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health told Tuoi Tre Online that after the shipment arrives in Vietnam, the doses will soon be allocated to virus-hit provinces and cities.