France offers Vietnam 1.4 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses

France additionally gave Vietnam about 1.4 million jabs of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday and Sunday, bringing its total vaccine donations to the Southeast Asian country to over two million shots.

Among the total, 400,000 doses have been delivered via the bilateral diplomatic channel and the remainder through COVAX Facility, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.

This aid resulted from Vietnam’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ efforts in general and from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to France in early November in particular.

The support that the French government and people give to their Vietnamese counterparts amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic is of great significance, the ministry remarked.

This is a vivid demonstration for the strategic partnership between the two countries and affirms their mutual support and cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, it added.

On September 14, French Ambassador to Vietnam Nicolas Warnery handed over 600,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the Vietnamese government in a ceremony in Hanoi.

Vietnam hopes France will continue offering it vaccines and medical equipment and supplies against COVID-19, while cooperating with the Southeast Asian country in the transfer of technologies for producing COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. 

France is a pioneer in launching the initiative to deploy the COVAX Facility and has strong commitments to contributing to this international mechanism.

The European country has donated 67 million doses of vaccines to more than 45 nations through this channel, becoming the second-largest donor after the U.S., according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Besides France, Vietnam has received vaccine donations from other countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic, and China, among others. 

The nation has received around 140 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines out of the 200 million shots that have been contracted.

Vietnam’s health workers have administered about 69.74 million first vaccine doses and 49 million second shots since immunization commenced on March 8, according to official figures.

The Ministry of Health expects to cover 70 percent of the adult population with two full doses by the year end.

Since erupting in Vietnam early last year, the pandemic has caused 1,210,340 infections, including 958,636 recoveries and 24,882 deaths, the health ministry’s data shows.

By Vinh Tho – Tuoi Tre News – November 29, 2021