Vietnam to buy Russian Covid-19 vaccine

As the Russian Covid-19 vaccine continues to make headline, Vietnam has registered to buy it, as it fights a new outbreak after going several months with no local cases, state television reported on Friday

Already Russia has made it known on Wednesday that it would roll out the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine within two weeks, rejecting the concerns of experts who said it should not have been approved before completing large-scale trials.

The Vietnam Television (VTV) while citing the Ministry of Health, said, “In the meantime, Vietnam will still continue developing the country’s own COVID-19 vaccine”.

According to Tuoi Tre newspaper, Vietnam has signed up for 50-150 million doses of the vaccine. Some will be a “donation” from Russia, with Vietnam paying for the rest.

The Health Ministry did not make it known when it expected to receive the vaccine, or how much it would cost. Last month, the ministry said Vietnam would have a home-grown vaccine available by the end of 2021.

The world has praised Vietnam for suppressing an earlier outbreak contagion through aggressive testing, contact-tracing and quarantining, but it is now racing to control infections in multiple locations linked to the popular tourist city of Danang, where a new outbreak was detected on July 25.

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In Vietnam’s coronavirus report, shows a total of 911 infections, with 21 deaths. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said the risk of wider contagion is very high, and that the next few days are critical.

Vu Duc Dam, the head of Vietnam’s coronavirus taskforce, said on Friday that Vietnam now had no choice but to “live safely with the virus”.

“We are implementing the anti-virus measures of a poor country, so everyone has to stay alert and know how to protect themselves from the virus,” Dam said, according to state media.

Recall that Russia has announced not long ago that its coronavirus vaccine was ready after successful trials, while the planned mass vaccination would start on October.