VVietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has ordered the Ministry of Health to assist a local enterprise in purchasing Sputnik V vaccine from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), amid the Southeast Asian country’s thirst for vaccine supply to curb the raging coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Chinh on Saturday directed the health ministry to support Vimedimex Medi - Pharma JSC (Vimedimex) in buying Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine from Royal Strategic Partners, a unit of Abu Dhabi Capital Group in the UAE.

The direction was made in response to a request from Vimedimex for help in dealing with the vaccine supplier, from which the Vietnamese company said it will buy 10 million Sputnik V vaccine doses.

After the vaccine arrives in Vietnam, people can get vaccination on demand at prices regulated by the health ministry.

Established as a state-owned enterprise by the ministry in 1984, Vimedimex was partly privatized in 2006 and listed on the Vietnamese stock market four years later.

The company is one of the 36 businesses licensed by the ministry to import and export vaccines and drugs, as well as to provide related warehousing services.

Earlier, four trade associations, including the Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association (LEFASO), Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), Vietnam Electronic Industries Association (VEIA), and Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA), made the same request to the government.

These associations proposed that the central government either speed up the national vaccination drive or assist businesses in buying vaccines so that they can inoculate their workers for free soon to ensure epidemic prevention while maintaining business operations.

Such proposals have come in the context that Vietnam’s State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has recently asked health authorities to promptly authorize Nano Covax, a vaccine being developed domestically, to make the first Vietnamese vaccine available soon to drive back the coronavirus spread. 

Vietnam aims to secure 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to inoculate about two-thirds of its 98 million-strong population to reach herd immunity, but it has so far got only over 19 million doses in total from different sources, including COVAX Facility, contractual purchases, and donations, the health ministry said.

As of Sunday morning, nearly 8.9 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered nationwide, with the numbers of people receiving the first and second shots topping eight million and some 888,000, respectively, the ministry reported.

Since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, Vietnam has registered 205,656 patients, including 203,313 domestic and 2,343 imported cases, of which 66,637 have recovered and 3,250 have died, the ministry’s data shows.

Among the domestic infections, as many as 201,743 cases, or 99.2 percent, have been recorded since April 27, when the pandemic’s fourth wave erupted in Vietnam.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!