Residents get vaccinated against Covid-19. An additional 659,900 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC this morning, July 29 - PHOTO: TNO

HCMC - An additional 659,900 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as part of the 30 million doses ordered by the Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC this morning, July 29.

This is the sixth vaccine shipment and the fourth in July that AstraZeneca has sent to Vietnam under a contract with VNVC, the local media reported.

Up to now, the contract between AstraZeneca and VNVC has brought in some 3.8 million doses to Vietnam.

As of today, Vietnam had taken delivery of some 9.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine through the VNVC contract with AstraZeneca, the COVAX Facility and donations from other countries, accounting for 62% of the total volume of vaccines in the country.

Nguyen Nam Lien, head of the Health Ministry’s Planning-Finance Department, said that due to the spike in cases, the vaccine is a key weapon to help Vietnam put the disease under control, revive its economy and get back to normal life.

In July, AstraZeneca shipped some 3.4 million doses to Vietnam, said Nitin Kapoor, chairman and general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam.

The British drugmaker will continue to cooperate with the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and VNVC to provide Vietnam with more doses as soon as possible, he added.

HCMC is kicking off the fifth round of vaccination, with over 902,000 doses within two or three weeks.