Vietnam is among 92 countries the U.S. will donate Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shots to by June of next year, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said on Friday.
“President Biden has just announced that the United States will donate half a billion Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to 92 countries around the world, including Vietnam, in dire need in the fight against COVID-19,” the embassy said in a post on its verified Facebook account.
“As long as this virus has a hold somewhere in the world, we're all at risk.
“We must defeat it in every corner of the globe.
“We are stronger together, and together, we will beat this pandemic!”
The embassy did not provide any specific number of vaccine shots for Vietnam.
The U.S. will deliver 500 million Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and economies as defined by Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) and the African Union by June of next year, according to a fact sheet released on the White House website on Thursday.
“The vaccines will start shipping in August 2021,” the White House said in the fact sheet.
“200 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year and the remaining 300 million will be delivered in the first half of 2022.”
The U.S. will allocate these doses to low and lower-middle income nations around the world, working through the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme to deliver them.
Pfizer plans to produce these half a billion doses at their U.S. facilities, according to the fact sheet.
Vietnam has grappled with the worst-ever outbreak of coronavirus infections since April 27.
The country has recorded 6,718 domestic cases in 39 out of its 63 provinces and cities since then.
By comparison, Vietnam confirmed 106 community cases in the first wave from January 23 to April 16, 2020, 554 in the second from July 25 to December 1, 2020, and 910 in the third from January 28 to March 25, 2021.
The Southeast Asian nation has administered 1,411,548 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to medical staff and other frontline workers since it rolled out inoculation on March 8.
Over 50,000 people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The government has set a target of immunizing at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people this year.
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