AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. — Photo Courtesy AstraZeneca Vietnam

HCM CITY — AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is estimated to have prevented 232,766 deaths in Việt Nam, an independent assessment of vaccine effectiveness showed.

The analysis conducted by Airfinity, a health data firm, covers the period from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021 and shows that more than 72 million doses were delivered to Việt Nam, making AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine one of the most used in the country.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine was the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Ministry of Health, and the first to be supplied in large quantities to support Việt Nam’s national vaccination campaign and pandemic response effort.

Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director, AstraZeneca Vietnam and Asia Area Frontier Markets, said: “This data reaffirms that vaccination is the fastest way to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, and that our vaccine is highly effective in preventing serious illness and death. AstraZeneca remains committed to collaborating closely with the Vietnamese Government, Ministry of Health, and our partners to protect people’s lives, in addition to achieving our mutual long-term goal of strengthening health system sustainability and resilience.”

The data also showed that globally, the AstraZeneca vaccine is estimated to have saved more than 6.3 million lives.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, AstraZeneca and its global partners have released more than three billion vaccine doses to more than 180 countries, and approximately two-thirds of these doses have been delivered to low- and lower-middle income countries.

In July 2022, data from a real-world evidence study at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 73 per cent effective against the highly transmissible Omicron variant when it is used as a fourth dose booster on top of any previous primary or booster vaccine.

To provide additional protection for immunocompromised and high-risk populations against COVID-19, AstraZeneca has also developed a long-acting antibody combination that has been available in Việt Nam since March 2022, following a special import approval by the Ministry of Health. According to various studies, the antibody duo has retained its neutralising activity against Omicron SARS-CoV-2 subvariants and all tested variants of concern to date.

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine was invented by the University of Oxford. It uses a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector based on a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. After vaccination, the surface spike protein is produced, priming the immune system to attack the SARS-CoV-2 virus if it later infects the body. — VNS