A shipment of AstraZeneca doses arrived at HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport this morning. Photo provided by VNVC

HÀ NỘI — A further 1,228,500 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived in HCM City’s Tân Sơn Nhất Airport this morning.

This is the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the order with AstraZeneca. They were acquired under the contract signed between AstraZeneca Vietnam and the Việt Nam Vaccine Joint Stock Company (VNVC).

The contract was negotiated with the support of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.

So far, the order has provided more than 3.1 million vaccine doses for Vietnamese people, the equivalent to about 37 per cent of AstraZeneca's total COVID-19 vaccine available in the country currently.

Nearly 8.6 million doses of the vaccine have been delivered to Việt Nam through the contract with VNVC, COVAX’s dose-sharing mechanism, and donations from other nations.

Nitin Kapoor, Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam said that the number of vaccines AstraZeneca provided for Việt Nam in July showed its commitment to support the country's fight against the pandemic.

"We will continue to cooperate with the health ministry, WHO, UNICEF, and VNVC to bring the vaccines to Việt Nam as quickly and safely as possible, to help the people return to normal life and reunite with their family," he said. — VNS