According to Health Ministry, as of July 8, 2021, about 3.9 million AstraZeneca doses were administered in Việt Nam, helping protect people who work in the frontlines in the fight against the COVID-19 and other ones in prioritised groups. —  AFP/VNA Photo

HCM CITY — AstraZeneca on Friday morning delivered 580,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the Việt Nam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), a private firm that remains the only company in Việt Nam authorised by the health ministry to import COVID-19 vaccines.

The vaccines arrived at HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport on Friday, marking the third delivery from AstraZeneca to VNVC under the agreement AstraZeneca, VNVC and Việt Nam’s health ministry signed in November last year.

VNVC paid a US$30 million deposit to AstraZeneca (along with proof of import and storage capacity and commitment for equitable use) when the vaccine was still in phase 2 of clinical trials last year to get early access at a "special price" if it succeeded.

VNVC also agreed to sell the entire 30 million doses on order to the Vietnamese health ministry on a non-profit basis.

On February 24, the first vaccine delivery from AstraZeneca to VNVC arrived in Việt Nam with 117,600 doses and the second delivery arrived on May 25 with 287,600 doses.

Ngô Chí Dũng, VNVC chairman and director-general, said the new doses would be transferred to the health ministry to serve the national vaccination drive.

VNVC would continue working with stakeholders to receive vaccines from AstraZeneca and transfer to the Ministry of Health, he said.

Nitin Kapoor, chairman and Director General of AstraZeneca Việt Nam and Asian emerging markets, said the latest vaccine shipment to Việt Nam marked the company’s increased ability to supply COVID-19 vaccines in the Asia-Pacific region.

He added the company was expanding its production to increase the COVID-19 vaccine supply.

Each batch of its vaccines underwent more than 60 quality control tests from the manufacturing stage to vaccination, he said.

As of Friday, Việt Nam had received a total of six million doses of COVID-19 vaccines including nearly 2.5 million doses under COVAX Facility, some 980,000 doses imported by VNVC, about 2.5 million doses donated by countries and over 97,000 doses purchased from Pfizer/BioNTech.

According to Health Ministry, as of July 8, about 3.9 million AstraZeneca doses had been administered in Việt Nam. VNS