Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long has said that, in order for Vietnamese people to access COVID-19 vaccines in the fastest way, the Government and the Prime Minister have issued various resolutions on vaccine access.
On that basis, the Ministry of Health together with the relevant authorities have coordinated to strengthen negotiations with all vaccine manufacturers and vaccine-producing countries. Currently, Vietnam is fully active in vaccine negotiations, according to Long.
The Ministry of Health has carried out nearly 200 negotiations and exchanges with companies and suppliers to be able to buy, import and receive aid on COVID-19 vaccines.
Along with the 128.9 million doses, the ministry is still looking for vaccine sources to ensure the acquisition of 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate and achieve herd immunity, thus bringing life back to normal.
Regarding domestic vaccine production, according to the Ministry of Health, , the country has two manufacturers researching vaccines against COVID-19, of which, a vaccine candidate is in phase 2 of clinical trial sand preparing to enter phase 3, that is the Nanocovax vaccine from the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Joint Stock Company. The other candidate in phase 1 trials is the COVIVAC vaccine by the Nha Trang Institute of Vaccines and Biologicals. Both manufacturers have a combined capacity of 30-40 million doses/year and this can be increased further.
To ensure the security of COVID-19 vaccine production in the following years, the Ministry of Health has also cooperated and negotiated with partners in production and technology transfer.
Assessing epidemic prevention and control in Vietnam, Minister Long said that, up to this point, Vietnam has basically controlled the epidemic, with the number of new cases in the past week having decreased compared to the previous one, particular in the two hot spots of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh.
Long added that epidemic prevention and control measures are being implemented synchronously, with the speed of testing being much higher than before. The total number of tests during the current phase is three times higher than in the previous waves and three times higher on average during a single day compared to previous peak days.
Regarding treatment, the Ministry of Health has deployed field hospitals and emergency centres in localities to be able to make use of on the spot resources. The ministry has mobilised a large number of medical staff from central level and from many provinces and cities, as well as from medical universities and colleges, to support the two hot spots of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang.
Long pointed to the next measure, which is to implement all technological solutions to increase surveillance in the implementation of medical isolation and epidemic prevention and control in the two provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang. At the same time, the health sector and localities have implemented active immunisation, with the greatest increase in the number of those getting vaccination in both Bac Giang and Bac Ninh.
As of noon on June 8, the Health Ministry announced that Vietnam had logged an additional 76 COVID-19 infections, including one imported case in Kien Giang province.
Among the domestically-transmitted cases, 55 were recorded in Bac Giang, 10 in Ho Chi Minh City, four in Bac Ninh, five in Lang Son, and one in the Dong Anh facility of the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Of them, 74 are in quarantine sites or sealed-off areas.
To date, Vietnam has documented 9,103 infections, including 1,583 imported ones.
Among patients undergoing treatment, 216 have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 once, 72 twice and 75 thrice.
Vietnam recorded its 54th coronavirus death today, bringing the fatality tally in the nation's latest wave to 19.
The deceased was a 51-year-old man from the northern province of Hung Yen, who had cirrhosis and toxic hepatitis.
His causes of death were haemorrhagic shock, septic shock, pneumonia due to COVID-19, cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy.
