Coronavirus: Vietnam asks for foreign support in procuring Covid-19 vaccines
- On Wednesday Vietnam’s health minister met Chinese, Indian and Russian diplomats to discuss vaccines
- Vietnam’s first domestic coronavirus vaccine, Nanocovax, is expected to be put into use in 2022
Vietnam has appealed to diplomats from the United States, European Union and Japan to help it secure supplies of Covid-19 vaccines, as part of efforts to acquire the 150 million doses needed to cover its adult population.
Vietnam has received about 930,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine so far but wants to procure doses from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, China’s Sinovac, and Russia’s Sputnik V shot.
Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long on Thursday asked Japan’s embassy for help with technology transfer for vaccine production and testing in Vietnam, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Long also asked the US ambassador for help with accelerating Vietnam’s inoculation programme and securing access to vaccines from US drug makers, and told EU representatives he hoped European pharmaceutical firms would consider more investment in Vietnam, the statement said.
The meetings came a day after Long on Wednesday met with Chinese, Indian and Russian diplomats to discuss vaccines.