Illustrative photo. (Source: iStock)HCM City (VNA) – The US has delivered an
additional 34 ultra-low temperature freezers to Vietnam to help the Southeast
Asian country expand life-saving COVID-19 vaccine storage capacity.
The freezers were handed over to the Vietnamese Ministry of
Health by US Ambassador Marc Knapper in Ho Chi Minh City on March 4.
They are among 111 ultra-low temperature freezers the Department of
Defence is providing to Vietnam with a total value of approximately 1 million
USD. They will be sent to HCM City and several southern provinces.
In his remarks at the handover ceremony,
Knapper said together with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the US Department
of Defence has stood alongside Vietnamese partners in the battle against
.
The US donation of the ultra-low temperature freezers today and the
previous deliveries of more than 26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, 100
ventilators and other medical supplies to Vietnam mark an important step
forward in the bilateral partnership in healthcare, he said.
With these ultra-low temperature freezers, Vietnam can safely store and
distribute mRNA vaccines, he said.
The diplomat stressed that the US is committed to assisting Vietnamese people in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and the US Mission will
continue lobbying for the delivery of more COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam until
there are enough vaccines for anyone who wants to be vaccinated.
He expressed his confidence that together both countries
will be able to weather the COVID-19 crisis.
Assoc. Prof., Dr. Nguyen Vu Trung, Director of the Pasteur
Institute in HCM City, one of the recipients, thanked the US for its timely
support, highlighting the importance of the in storing and
distributing the vaccines.
The freezers will be used by the Pasteur Institute HCM City, Cho
Ray Hospital, 176 Military Hospital and CDCs of 20 southern provinces to back
the country’s ongoing COVID-19 vaccine rollout./.
Source: VietnamPlus
