Vaccines donated by the UK and European countries via COVAX arrived in Hà Nội. — Photo courtesy of UNICEF

HÀ NỘI — At the turn of the year 2021/2022, Việt Nam received 6.2 million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses from the UK and European partners via the COVAX Facility.

They include 99,450 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine donated by Luxembourg, 159,120 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine donated by Portugal and 2,012,960 doses of Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by the UK, and 4,000,230 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine donated by Germany.

The British Ambassador to Việt Nam Gareth Ward said: “Vaccines are the best way to protect people and prevent the proliferation of new variants. This donation is part of the UK’s support to Việt Nam’s roadmap of opening the economy by facilitating its vaccine boosting at a large scale. We are committed to accompanying Việt Nam to embrace a new chapter in 2022 when we all can live with COVID-19 with peace and prosperity again.”

The UK is currently one of the largest donors to the COVAX Facility, providing over £548 million to supply vaccines globally, including Việt Nam. This contribution also marks the third bilateral vaccine commitment by the UK Government to Việt Nam after the arrival of more than 727,000 doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2021.

In 2022, the UK will continue to strengthen the bilateral health partnership by supporting Việt Nam to build a resilient health system through providing vaccines and medical supplies, and by facilitating knowledge exchange opportunities between the two countries.    

Representing the Embassy of Luxembourg to Việt Nam, the Honorary Consul in Hà Nội, Trần Hồng Quang, stressed that “no one should be left behind in the fight against COVID-19.”

A longstanding supporter of global vaccination efforts, Luxembourg actively engages in multilateral initiatives such as COVAX. In late 2021, Luxembourg doubled its financial contributions to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment to 4 million EUR to support the procurement of vaccines around the world and mitigate the effects of the two-track pandemic.

Luxembourg’s support for immunisation programmes in Việt Nam date back to the 1990s and the development of a nationwide vaccine cold chain.

B Medical System, the leading manufacturer and distributor of cold chain equipment, has since delivered more than 30,000 blood and vaccine cold chain units.

An additional 174 refrigerators arrived in June 2021 through GAVI and UNICEF funded projects, which will assist with the storage of vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. 

Representing the Embassy of Portugal to Việt Nam, the Honorary Consul in Hà Nội, Trần Kim Chung said: “In 2021, Portugal donated nearly 160,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Việt Nam through the COVAX Facility.

"This action showed the solidarity with Việt Nam in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. With the current development of Omicron, the pandemic will be far from over. Portugal will continue to support Việt Nam in the health sector to respond to the challenges caused by the pandemic and to ensure the equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines for Vietnamese people”

Lesley Miller, OIC Representative of UNICEF Việt Nam, said: "On behalf of the UN Family, I would like to thank the Government and people of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom for ensuring this timely, and important contribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to Việt Nam."

"The donation of vaccines from generous countries is proving an essential contribution to the equitable distribution of both initial and booster doses to populations around the world. Nevertheless, still more is needed, and the virus will continue its unpredictable path of mutation and waves of complex outbreaks until all countries achieve strong vaccination coverage."

The German Ambassador to Việt Nam Guido Hildner said: “Germany has donated vaccines and medical equipment to Việt Nam on several occasions in 2021."

"With this new shipment of over 4 million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine via COVAX, Germany continues its ongoing support to Việt Nam to fight and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued high numbers of infections, as well as the Omicron variant spreading at a rapid pace worldwide, show that the pandemic is far from being defeated. In 2022, Germany will continue to show solidarity with Viet Nam in the fight against the pandemic and provide further vaccines through the international vaccine platform COVAX.”

The recent delivery is the largest German donation of vaccine doses to Việt Nam to date, bringing the total number of vaccines supplied by Germany to Viet Nam to over 10 million doses.

With the delivery of vaccines donated by Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom, Việt Nam has received 51,024,180 doses of COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility. 

The COVAX Facility is co-led by WHO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations, and GAVI - the Vaccine Alliance, with UNICEF as a key delivery partner. — VNS