Vietnam receives more COVID-19 vaccines from Russia, Italy

A batch of 740,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, provided by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to Vietnam, arrived in the nation on September 29 at Noi Bai International Airport.

A batch of 740,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine arrive at Noi Bai international airport (Photo: Vabiotech)

This marks the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine to arrive in the country after the working session held with the leader of the Russian Direct Investment Fund as part of Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son’s visit to Russia.

This is also the first time that the nation has received a large number of Sputnik V vaccines directly from the Eastern European nation.

The latest batch of vaccines has been received by the No 1 Vaccine and Biological Products One Member Company Limited (Vabiotech) – a RDIF partner of technology transfer of Sputnik V vaccine production in Vietnam.

The Vabiotech representative revealed that the company has received a large quantity of semi-finished products for domestic production of the Sputnik V vaccine, adding that it will produce a total of 40 million doses between now and June, 2022.

All of the domestically produced-vaccines will be used during the ongoing vaccination programme for residents nationwide.

This comes after an announcement made by Vabiotech on September 24 regarding the successful production of its first batch of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the nation. Indeed, these batches successfully meet the standard requirements put forth by the Gamalaya Institute of Russia.

Sputnik V is therefore the first foreign vaccine with production technology being transferred and manufactured domestically. It was approved for emergency use by the Ministry of Health on March 23.

Meanwhile, the Italian Government has decided to donate more than 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the country.

The move has therefore increased the total number of vaccines donated by the Italian Government to more than 2.8 million doses, the EU Delegation in Vietnam announced on September 28 through its Facebook page.

Earlier on September 21, the Italian Government announced its decision to provide an additional 796,000 AstraZeneca vaccine does to the nation through the COVAX mechanism in support of the Vietnamese fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously on September 14, the country received 812,060 doses of vaccines from Italy for its COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

With a total of 2.8 million doses donated, the country has become one of Italy's largest priority vaccine recipients globally.

The nation has now received more than 55 million COVID-19 vaccine doses of all kinds, mainly AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sinopharm, along with some Sputnik V vaccines donated by Russia.