Vietnam to have 125m doses this year

Vietnam’s health ministry said the country will have nearly 125 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines this year after initially reporting it expects 120 million vaccine doses, according to an updated post on the government’s website.

The total includes 5 million doses from Moderna Inc, 20 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine and 31 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, it said.

Vietnam, with a popultaion of 96.5 million, will also acquire 30 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses and 38.9 million doses through the Covax initiative, the World Health Organization-backed effort to buy and distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income nations.

Vietnam is nearing its goal of purchasing 150 million vaccine doses this year for 75% of the population, according to the post, which cited Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long.

Vietnam continues to negotiate with vaccine manufacturers to boost vaccine supplies to reach its herd immunity target by the end of this year or early 2022, Long said.

Bloomberg News – June 3, 2021