The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will supply Vietnam with 1,600 cold boxes for the storage and transport of COVID-19 vaccines.

The cold boxes are expected to be delivered to the Southeast Asian country in September along with temperature monitoring devices, a JICA representative confirmed on Wednesday.

The assistance is worth JPY100 million (US$908,000), the representative continued, adding that the JICA is purchasing the items through UNICEF Vietnam.

The cold boxes are able to preserve COVID-19 vaccines at two to eight degrees Celsius, making sure the doses are safely transported from storage to vaccination sites.

Within this month, the JICA will also cooperate with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to launch a project on preventing contagious disease and strengthening epidemiological control at border gates in Vietnam.

Through this support program, the Japanese agency will help train border gate officers and improve their disease control capacity, as well as providing them with personal protective equipment.

This support program is worth approximately JPY20 million ($181,650).

Vietnam had documented 65,607 COVID-19 cases by Wednesday afternoon, with 11,443 recoveries and 334 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has recorded 61,940 local infections in 60 provinces and cities since the fourth and worst outbreak began on April 27.

More than 4.3 million vaccine doses have been administered since Vietnam rolled out inoculation on March 8.

A total of 317,672 people have been fully vaccinated.

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