(13th Congress) - The Russian Federation has sent Vietnam the first 1,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine, which has been stored and refrigerated. These are the first doses of Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has said.
Sputnik V vaccine (Photo: Sputnik)
The Sputnik V vaccine batch is a gift from the Russian Federation, brought to Vietnam by Secretary of the Security Council of Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev, on March 16, during his two-day business visit to Vietnam.
According to Dang Viet Hung, Head of the International Cooperation Department under the Ministry of Health, the vaccines have been transferred to the cold storage of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) for preservation.
Deputy Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, said that this year Vietnam will have 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which 30 million doses are from the global vaccine supply program COVAX, and 30 million doses are ordered by Vietnam.
In addition, the Ministry of Health is also actively negotiating with pharmaceutical firms Pfizer, Moderna (US) and Sputnik V (Russia) to buy more vaccines.
Vietnam targets to have 150 million doses of vaccine available this year before domestic batches of COVID-19 vaccine can be mass produced, by the end of this year and early next year.
According to the results of the phase 3 clinical trial published in The Lancet, the Sputnik V vaccine is as effective as 91.6%, for volunteers over 60 years old, this rate is 91.8%. After injection, 98% of volunteers produced antibodies against the SARS CoV-2 virus./.
Compiled by BTA