Vietnam approves China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine as country sees infections uptick

Vietnam has approved the use of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, the country’s state media reported. The jab became the third to be greenlit by the country, joining AstraZeneca and the Russian-made Sputnik V.

The Vietnamese Health Ministry authorized the emergency use of the Sinopharm shot, the official Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday. So far, the ministry has not made its own announcement regarding the approval.

The Chinese jab is the third vaccine to be authorized by the Southeast Asian country. It previously approved the British-Swedish shot by AstraZeneca, as well as Sputnik V.

On Wednesday, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said the nation was close to securing 150 million doses of vaccines this year, which are needed to meet the goal of vaccinating 75% of the country’s 98 million population. So far, the vaccination campaign has been going at a rather modest pace, with around 2.9 million doses imported, primarily AstraZeneca, of which around one million have been distributed.

Vietnam has recently seen an uptick in infections, although its overall coronavirus tally remains extremely low compared to the worst-affected nations, where case numbers are already in the millions. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has registered only some 8,115 cases, including 49 deaths.

Some 60% of the Vietnamese cases, however, were detected during the past month. Moreover, the testing campaign has been slow, with only around five million Covid-19 tests performed, suggesting the real situation might actually be considerably worse.

Globally, more than 172 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic, which has been raging for a year-and-a-half already. Over 3.7 million people have succumbed to the disease worldwide.

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