The first from cannot be delivered to Vietnam as originally planned. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The first shipment of vaccines from the COVAX
Facility cannot be delivered to Vietnam as planned in late March as producers
are expanding and optimising production process,
the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine has said.
Some 811,200 doses of doses, fewer than the original plan of
1.1 million doses, are scheduled to arrive in the country in the next three
weeks.
Around 3 million more doses will be arriving by the end of May, pending
operational and supply constraints, according to a statement from UNICEF Vietnam.
On March 23, Vietnam approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use against
COVID-19, the second approved in the Southeast Asian county after the
AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Ministry of Health and vaccine suppliers have worked with Johnson &
Johnson, and Moderna for COVID-19 vaccine procurement, however, they have not
informed their ability to supply vaccines in 2021.
Additionally, the country is also banking on homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, not
only to serve the domestic demands but also to export the surplus to other
nations.
The front-runner among the three currently being developed in the country, NanoCovax by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, is undergoing second phase of
human trials, with results expected in May.
The third and final phase of human trials is scheduled to
take place around May to September, and registration for circulation will be
pushed forward to September, three months earlier than planned.
Vietnam started its national COVID-19 vaccination drive earlier this
month with 117,000 doses bought commercially from AstraZeneca with frontline
workers first in line to receive the jabs.
COVAX
Facility is a global mechanism for the development, manufacture and procurement
of COVID-19 candidate vaccines, facilitating and supporting member countries to
access vaccines as they become available./.
Source: VietnamPlus
