HCMC – Following a meeting with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi today, August 25, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States would donate one million more Pfizer vaccine doses to Vietnam.
These doses will raise the total number of Covid vaccine doses donated by the U.S. to the Southeast Asian nation to six million, according to a statement issued by the office of the U.S. vice president.
The additional doses will be shipped to Vietnam within the next 24 hours, Harris said.
Besides, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will provide Vietnam with technical support worth US$23 million to respond to the pandemic, taking the total support to US$44 million since the pandemic emerged in the country.
The donation is aimed at boosting the country’s capacity to access and distribute vaccines and improve the healthcare system, the local media reported.
USAID will also donate US$1 million to the Vietnam Red Cross Society to cushion the damage caused by Covid-19, while the U.S. Department of Defense committed to supplying 77 ultra-low temperature freezers to Vietnam to store the Covid vaccine doses.
At a meeting with State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the same day, the U.S. vice president highly valued Vietnam’s efforts in the fight against Covid-19 and affirmed that the United States would continue to support Vietnam to fight the pandemic.
Vietnam has already received five million Moderna Covid-19 vaccine doses from the United States through the Covax Facility. Vietnam is one of 10 countries to receive the largest number of doses through the facility.
In addition, in mid-August, 90 CEOs at major U.S. firms proposed U.S. President Joe Biden quickly give vaccine assistance to Vietnam to help the country bring the pandemic under control as the country is struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Vietnam’s total confirmed cases have surged to nearly 370,000, with around 185,000 of them detected in HCMC alone.
