HCMC – The Ministry of Health has allowed switching Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines for second doses as supply delays have slowed the vaccination drives in some provinces in the country.
According to the ministry, the mix-and-match vaccine decision was made based on a recommendation by an advisory council on the use of Covid-19 vaccines.
Accordingly, hospitals and clinics can switch to the Pfizer vaccine to give the second shot to people who got the Moderna vaccine as the first shot or vice versa.
A first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine can be combined with a second shot from either Pfizer or Moderna.
Vietnam has received different Covid-19 vaccines from different producers using different technologies, such as AstraZeneca and Sputnik V with the vector technology, Pfizer and Moderna with the mRNA technology and Vero Cell using inactivated coronaviruses.
Due to the shortages of Covid-19 vaccines, many countries have researched and permitted mixing and matching vaccines.
In Vietnam, hospitals and clinics had begun administering the Pfizer vaccine to people who got the first shot of Moderna.
The United States has donated more than 5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Vietnam. HCMC and many other provinces have used up their allocated Moderna doses to give the first shot to people, mostly the elderly. Therefore, they are running short of Moderna for second shots.
The ministry has also ordered the close monitoring of those receiving two different vaccines to prevent side effects.
