COVID-19 vaccines are given to students aged 12-17 in the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam became the 53rd country in the world achieving the goal of covering basic doses of COVID-19 vaccine for 70 per cent of its population, according to the website covidvax.live, which updates the vaccination speed worldwide every day.

The website reported that only 63 out of more than 220 countries and territories who provide on COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control across the world had achieved the goal.

In Asia, Việt Nam's vaccination speed and quantity are higher than that of Thailand, Laos,  Philippines, India and Indonesia. Outside of Asia, Việt Nam is lower than the US vaccine coverage by only two grades, but 40 grades higher than Russia.

According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, over 146 million doses of vaccines against had been administered to people as of December 27, including over 77 million first shots and nearly 66.5 million second jabs. Việt Nam has recorded 2.8 million people as getting the third doses so far.

According to Russian news agency Sputnik, thanks to its relentless vaccine diplomacy strategy, from a country with a low rate of COVID-19 vaccine vaccination, Việt Nam has become one of the countries having the fastest vaccination speed in the world in a short time.

The vaccine diplomacy, an unprecedented diplomatic strategy in Việt Nam's history, has been drastically deployed in all activities, helping Việt Nam safely adapt to and effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic, the news agency said.

Not only successful in ensuring the supply of COVID-19 vaccine, Việt Nam’s vaccine diplomacy strategy also facilitated the transfer of vaccine production technologies of other countries to Việt Nam, including Sputnik-V of Russia, Abdala of Cuba and Covaxin of India, it added. — VNS