The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX arrived in Việt Nam on April 1, 2021. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has decided to add VNĐ11.58 billion ($500,000) from the central budget reserve in 2021 to the Ministry of Health to make contributions to the COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) Facility. 

He ordered the management and use of the funding to be publicised, transparent, and in line with regulations. 

The principal role of the COVAX Facility is to maximise the chances of people in participating countries getting access to COVID-19 vaccines as quickly, fairly and safely as possible. By joining COVAX, self-financing countries will be guaranteed sufficient doses to protect a certain proportion of their population, depending upon how much they buy into it. Subject to funding availability, funded countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20 per cent of their population in the longer term.

As one of 190 participating countries, Việt Nam is included in the list of those getting sponsored in the first phase of the mechanism.

So far, UNICEF has delivered a total of 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the initiative to Việt Nam, with the first batch of 811,200 arriving on April 1, and the second shipment of 1,682,000 doses in mid-May, making up the mainstay of Việt Nam’s vaccination drive

As of June 23, more than 2.6 million vaccine doses have been administered in Việt Nam, with 137,682 receiving the full two doses. — VNS