Health ministry allows mixing Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna vaccines
VGP – The Ministry of Health has allowed offering the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech as a second dose option for people first vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine.
The ministry had approved the mixed regimen, which is due to low supplies of the Moderna vaccine. Both vaccines are of the Messenger RNA (mRNA) type.
Earlier in July, the ministry allowed mixing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine with the one produced by Pfizer/BioNTech.
To date, Viet Nam has approved six COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, and all of them are safe and effective against COVID-19, including AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Vero Cell, Comirnaty, Spikevax and Janssen.
The vaccination rate among people aged 18 and above is expected to increase to at least 50% this year and over 70% by the end of the first quarter of 2022, according to the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 vaccination plan for the 2021-2022 period which envisages an overall goal of reaching herd immunity by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
So far, Viet Nam has received 33 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, of which 23,577,917 doses have been administered, with 3,768,683 people fully vaccinated.
By Thuy Dung
