HCMC – Vietnamese Ambassador to Poland Nguyen Hung on August 20 received more than 501,000 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses presented by Poland at the Warsaw Chopin International Airport.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński and Deputy Health Minister Anna Goławska highly appreciated the valuable assistance from Vietnam at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, saying that Poland’s victory in the fight against the pandemic was partly thanks to Vietnam, including the Vietnamese community in Poland, the local media reported.
Therefore, Poland wanted to share Vietnam’s difficulties in the current Covid-19 wave and expected its donation would help Vietnam soon put the pandemic under control and help its economy recover.
For his part, Hung thanked the Polish government and people for their valuable assistance. He expressed his belief that both Vietnam and Poland would win over the pandemic together and the 70-year partnership between the two countries would continue to grow.
On August 17, Poland announced it would present over 501,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and medical equipment and supplies worth US$4 million to Vietnam. Vietnam is the first non-European country to which Poland has donated vaccines and medical equipment.
The medical equipment was expected to be shipped to Vietnam early next month.
Poland has also pledged to transfer three million vaccine doses to Vietnam and the competent agencies of the two countries are in discussion over the shipment of the vaccine.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on August 13 signed a decision establishing a working team of the Government to mobilize international partners and organizations to continue providing Vietnam with Covid-19 vaccines, enhance cooperation in vaccine production and technology transfer and access new foreign partners.
At a Government meeting on August 12, the prime minister said he had phoned the prime ministers of 16 other countries, written to leaders of 22 countries and worked with 10 international organizations to foster the vaccine diplomacy.
Vietnam has received more than 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses.
In related news, on August 20, the prime minister assigned the Ministry of Health to check the quality of the UAE’s Hayat-Vax Covid-19 vaccine and approve the vaccine for emergency use in Vietnam.
In a document sent to the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs, the Government Office stated that Vimedimex Medi-Pharma JSC on July 17 proposed the prime minister direct the Ministry of Health to accelerate the assessment of dossiers for the approval of the Hayat-Vax vaccine.
Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was assigned to boost diplomatic activities to import the vaccine.
Vietnam has approved six Covid vaccines for emergency use: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, Sinopharm’s Vero Cell and Sputnik V.
Four of them, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and Vero Cell, are being administered in Vietnam. The country has administered more than 16.3 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to local residents, with 1.63 million people having received two shots.
