Vietnam-made Covid vaccine to be available by end of 2021

Vietnam’s health ministry announced on Wednesday that the country’s domestically made Covid vaccine, Nanocovax, will be available by the end of 2021, with the government planning to start distributing it next year.

Four Vietnamese companies have been working on developing and producing Covid vaccines, with two, Nanocovax and Covivac, currently in human trials.

In a statement, the health ministry declared that “the containment of the pandemic depends largely on the development of vaccines.” 

While Vietnam is planning to use its domestically made jabs to help speed up the vaccination rollout, the government made it clear it would continue to use other vaccines too, having taken delivery of a shipment from AstraZeneca, which is currently the country’s primary supplier.

More than 20,000 people in Vietnam have already received a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The health ministry plans to continue its use despite other nations raising concerns over incidents of blood clots.

The health minister also revealed that Vietnam is speaking with a number of companies abroad to help meet its goal of acquiring 150 million doses, and is looking to purchase vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, and of Sputnik V.

Vietnam is part of the COVAX scheme, an international initiative run by the World Health Organization to ensure every country has access to vaccines. Hanoi was expected to have received 30 million doses from the scheme as of last month. 

Since the start of the pandemic, Vietnam has reported 2,559 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 35 deaths from the virus, and experienced a spike at the start of this year.

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