Vietnam formally received on Tuesday 2,558,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by Germany, with the European country expected to gift a total of over 10 million doses to the Southeast Asian nation.

The vaccine doses were sent through the global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX Facility, the World Health Organization (WHO) Vietnam said on Tuesday on its verified Facebook account.

German Ambassador to Vietnam, Dr Guido Hildner, was joined by other UN, UNICEF, and WHO officials at the handover ceremony at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi.

On December 10, the shipment of 2,558,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in the Vietnamese capital, the German Embassy said in a press release issued the same day.

The vaccine donation was made through COVAX Facility in close coordination with UNICEF and WHO Vietnam, as well as the Vietnamese government.

Germany has already provided Vietnam with vaccines and medical equipment this year.

This delivery is another contribution by Germany to support Vietnam's vaccination campaign.

Germany will supply Vietnam with even more vaccine shots, bringing the total number of vaccines the European country is expected to deliver to the Southeast Asian nation to over 10 million doses, the embassy asserted.

"With this new delivery of over 2.5 million doses of vaccine through COVAX, Germany reaffirms its solidarity with Vietnam in combating and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Hildner was quoted as saying in the press release.

“Current developments show that the pandemic is far from being defeated.

“Germany will provide further vaccines to Vietnam through the international vaccine platform COVAX.

“We can only defeat the pandemic if it is brought under control everywhere.

“Therefore, Germany and the European Union support the COVAX vaccination campaign for fair and transparent access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide."

"On behalf of the UN family, we thank the government and people of Germany for sharing these life-saving vaccine doses with the Vietnamese people,” said Rana Flowers, UN coordinator ad interim and representative of UNICEF in Vietnam.   

“We seek to ensure vaccines reach to every corner of this country and the world, equitably.

“The governments who have supported and continue to support COVAX, including through financial support and donations of vaccine, are the change makers in the fight against the spread of this pandemic.”

Another batch of 2.6 million AstraZeneca vaccine shots donated by Germany touched down in Ho Chi Minh City in late September.

This summer, some German states donated to Vietnam one million rapid antigen test kits, face masks, protective clothing, and vaccine storage refrigerators.

In early 2020, Vietnam provided Germany with over 100,000 face masks for free.

Vietnam has received a total of 45,197,910 doses of COVID-19 vaccine so far through COVAX Facility.

Up to now, about 151 million vaccine doses have been delivered to Vietnam, as donations and via purchase contracts, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

COVAX is co-led by WHO, Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and UNICEF as delivery partners.

Germany co-founded the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelarator (ACT-A) coordination mechanism, of which COVAX is the vaccine pillar, last year and is its second-largest donor with €2.2 billion (US$2.5 billion).  

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