Health Ministry Approves Second COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use

This is the second COVID-19 vaccine approved in the Southeast Asian country so far.

Sputnik V, developed by Russian Gamaleya Institute, has an efficacy rate of 91.6% in preventing COVID-19, according to an interim analysis of the Phase 3 clinical trials published in the medical journal The Lancet in early February.

Last week, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev brought 1,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine donated to Viet Nam following an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Viet Nam received the first batch of 117,600 AstraZeneca vaccine doses on February 24 and began administering these doses to more than 36,000 frontline workers since March 8.

The nation is expected to receive 30 million doses through the COVAX Facility – a global pooled procurement mechanism for COVID-19 vaccines.

The first batch of 1.3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility will arrive on March 25 while the next delivery of 2.8 million doses is expected one month later.

As of 6: 05 pm on Tuesday, Viet Nam confirmed 2,576 COVID-19 cases, including 2,246 recoveries and 35 fatalities, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control led by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam./.

By Ngoc Van