A delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to Việt Nam from the COVAX Facility. — Photo courtesy of UNICEF Việt Nam

GENEVA — Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to Việt Nam, via the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX Facility.

On April 1, 2021, the first batch of just over 811,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines was transported to the country with the help of UNICEF, which was in charge of the purchase of delivery of vaccines via COVAX.

To date, Việt Nam has received a total of over 64 million doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna vaccines through the COVAX Facility. COVAX accounts for nearly 30 per cent of the total vaccines Việt Nam has received to date (227.8 million as of March 30, 2022) through both donations and bilateral contracts.

Aurélia Nguyen, Managing Director of the COVAX Facility at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which manages the COVAX Facility and the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), and leads on procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX, said: “Việt Nam has excelled at its vaccination drive, achieving widespread coverage among the elderly, the most at-risk and the wider population groups. Over 79 per cent of Việt Nam’s population has now received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“This milestone was made possible through initiatives such as improvised immunisation points across the country which saw a big proportion of the population reached within a five-month period. At peak, more than 2.1 million doses were administered in a single day.

“Over the last year, Việt Nam has implemented strategies that have been crucial in ensuring success in vaccine distribution and I would like to congratulate the people of Việt Nam and the Ministry of Health for their commitment to vaccine equity.”

So far, Việt Nam has administered a total of 206.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 188.92 million in the adult population (with around 50 million third doses) and 17.18 million in the children aged 12-17 years old.

50 per cent of the adults have received the third vaccine shots, and the rate in the more at-risk adult group is at 64 per cent. — VNS