Vietnam received a batch of 1,682,400 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the COVAX Facility on Sunday, the second shipment since April.

This delivery came in addition to 811,200 doses arriving on April 1 and is part of the 4.1 million vaccine doses committed to Vietnam free of charge by the COVAX Facility, UNICEF said in a press release the same day.

COVAX is an international partnership created to ensure global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVAX Facility is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI), GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF as a key delivery partner.

Since the arrival of the first shipment, more than 876,346 jabs have been administered in Vietnam, mainly to health workers and other frontline workers.

The additional shots will help Vietnam’s Ministry of Health to expand coverage and reach more people from priority groups, while also providing a second dose to those who have already received the first jab.

The latest shipment of Vaxzevria doses, previously called COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca, was jointly developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

This batch was shipped from Catalent Biologics’ manufacturing facility in Anagni, Italy.

The Vaxzevria COVID-19 vaccine has received the Emergency Use Authorization from WHO and has been used successfully in Vietnam since the Southeast Asian nation rolled out its mass vaccination on March 8.

For several months, COVAX partners, including CEPI, GAVI, WHO, and UNICEF, have been supporting the Vietnamese government in readiness efforts and the national roll-out of coronavirus vaccines.

They have been especially active in developing a National Vaccination Plan, as Vietnam is benefiting from the Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which is an innovative financial mechanism to help secure global and equitable access to COVID-19 jabs.  

Partners and producers have pledged to supply 110 million doses of various COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam in 2021, the Ministry of Health said in a post on its verified Facebook account on May 14.

Thirty-one million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been committed to Vietnam, the ministry announced in the post.

The remainder will come from the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme and AstraZeneca.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 37 domestic cases of COVID-19 on Monday morning, taking the national tally to 4,212 patients, including 2,746 locally-transmitted infections.

Vietnam has confirmed 1,177 domestic coronavirus infections in 26 provinces and cities since April 27, when the country was first hit by a fourth wave after having spent roughly a month detecting no community transmission.

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