Vietnam recorded no local coronavirus infection and one imported case on Tuesday, when health authorities also approved a Russian vaccine for emergency use against COVID-19.
The Southeast Asian country has logged zero community-based transmissions for five days in a row, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.
The only imported case is a 25-year-old Vietnamese returnee from France.
He touched down in Hanoi by plane on March 9 and was sent to obligatory quarantine upon entry, pursuant to local regulations on COVID-19 contagion prevention.
The patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Tuesday.
He is being isolated for treatment in the capital city.
The health ministry announced 12 recoveries on Tuesday, bringing the total to 2,246.
Vietnam has registered 2,576 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday evening, the ministry’s data showed.
The caseload includes 1,601 domestic infections, with 908 of them recorded since January 27, when Vietnam was hit by a new wave.
The nation has confirmed 35 virus-related fatalities so far, most having suffered underlying medical problems.
At the time of writing, authorities are quarantining 37,754 people who either came into close contact with infected patients or entered the country from pathogen-hit regions.
Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong signed a decision on Tuesday to authorize Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V for emergency use in Vietnam.
POLYVAC, a vaccine center in Hanoi, had asked for the approval from the health ministry.
The Sputnik V jab is produced by JSC Generium from Russia.
The Ministry of Health received 1,000 Sputnik V shots as a donation from Russia on March 16, said Dang Viet Hung, director of the ministry’s Department of International Cooperation.
This is the second vaccine to be approved for emergency use against COVID-19 in Vietnam, with the first being AstraZeneca.
Vietnam is negotiating the purchase of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the maker of Russia’s Sputnik V, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said last week, adding that it may be able to buy 30 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses this year.
The government has stated that it already secured 60 million AstraZeneca jabs via direct purchases and the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme.
Vietnam hopes to acquire 150 million vaccine doses in total in 2021.
The Southeast Asian nation had administered the first shot of AstraZeneca to 36,082 people by 4:00 pm on Monday.
Its mass vaccination started on March 8.
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