Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne.

Speaking at a symbolic handover ceremony held in Hanoi on November 9, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long expressed appreciation for the valuable and much needed support of the Australian Government and UNICEF in the protection of people’s health, especially in the prevention of COVID-19.

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne attended the handover ceremony as part of her official visit to Vietnam. “I’m very proud that Australia is working in partnership with the Government of Vietnam to help to support Vietnam’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout,” she said.

At the ceremony, Minister Payne also announced that Australia will share a further 2.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with Vietnam. Australia has now committed to share over 7.8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses with Vietnam.

“As a close friend and partner of Vietnam, Australia is very proud to be able to support Vietnam in this way. It is indeed, only together that we will be able to maintain progress toward our region’s shared recovery from COVID-19 and to overcome the pandemic,” she said. 

The syringes and safety boxes are being distributed to vaccination points as needed. 1,910 vaccine refrigerators HBC-80 will be delivered to hard-to-reach communes in 35 provinces that currently lack refrigerators. With a storage capacity of 61L, the refrigerators will each be able to store enough vaccines doses for targeted COVID-19 vaccination in the communes.

“The cold chain equipment ensures that the vaccines are safely stored and delivered. This crucial contribution helps to strengthen immunisation systems right down to the commune level – ensuring that people even in the remotest of areas have access to safe vaccines, including those for COVID-19. Equitable access to vaccination is the clearest pathway out of the pandemic, is the pathway to ending preventable deaths. No one is safe until everyone is safe”, said Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative.

“UNICEF is delighted to join hands with the Australian Government to support Vietnam to enhance the capacity of the health and immunisation systems to efficiently and equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines,” she added.

Announced in April 2021, the Australia-UNICEF partnership provides a unique package that will assist Vietnam across a range of areas vital to the successful delivery of a mass immunisation program against COVID-19.

Along with upgrades to cold chain equipment and the purchase of immunization devices, the partnership supports training for healthcare workers, communication campaigns, monitoring of vaccine deployment and planning and implementation of the vaccine rollout in remote provinces in Vietnam. 

The partnership is part of Australia’s comprehensive AUD60 million package of support for Vietnam’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Mai Lan

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosts Australian minister

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on November 9 hosted a reception for visiting Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne, who is on a working visit to Vietnam.