The flight carrying a shipment of 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine along with 502,400 single-use syringes as aid from the Chinese Government has arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon.

The largest ever COVID-19 vaccination campaign with 786,000 doses distributed to Ho Chi Minh City kicked off on June 19.

Diplomatic channels have been optimised to seek COVID-19 vaccine supply sources around the world in the hope of increasing the rate of vaccinated people, thus pushing back the pandemic soon.

At Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi, passengers who are returning from HCM City are separated in a particular zone, and some of them are randomly tested for Covid-19.

The Ministry of Health on June 17 announced it will distribute a total of 966,320 doses of AstraZenaca coronavirus vaccine to local Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs), hospitals and medical units, among others, across the country.

The government has approved a proposal by Ho Chi Minh City to allow companies to directly negotiate with suppliers to purchase vaccines for their employees amid the largest COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son yesterday announced that Ho Chi Minh City is to receive 800,000 more doses of Covid-19 vaccine to aid its fierce fight against the latest Covid-19 outbreak citywide.

It is impossible to say whether or not a drug or vaccine is absolutely safe, and in order to evaluate a vaccine both short-term and long-term safety must be considered, according to health experts.

Nearly one million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Japanese Government arrived at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on late June 16.

Vietnam is seeking support from the private sector to secure enough funding to nail deals of 150 million COVID-19 doses in 2021 in an effort to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.

The authorities of Ho Chi Minh City have asked for the Prime Minister’s approval for the purchase of Covid-19 vaccines for city residents.

Japan has donated a batch of one million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Vietnam. The shipment of the vaccines made in Japan is expected to leave on Wednesday and arrive in Vietnam the same day.

The national COVID-19 vaccine fund has received more than 4.85 trillion VND (211.35 million USD) worth of donations from 291,818 organisations and individuals as of 5pm on June 13, according to the fund's management board.

The Ministry of Health confirmed 91 new locally-transmitted and one imported COVID-19 cases in the past 12 hours to 6am on June 14, including 73 detected in quarantined or locked down areas.

“I am a soldier. If I don’t die on the battlefield, I need to lead a meaningful life in peacetime,” said Le Van De, a war invalid in Hai Duong, explaining why he donated VND4.5 billion to the vaccine fund.

Foreign diplomats and UN representatives are among the first to get vaccinated in Vietnam.

Vietnam has granted emergency licenses for three vaccines against Covid-19: AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinopharm. It is expected that Pfizer will be the fourth vaccine on this list.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long met recently with the ambassadors of Australia, Switzerland and France in Vietnam regarding cooperation in epidemic prevention, especially the supply of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam.

Da Nang city has gone 19 days with no Covid-19 community transmitted infections. The number of cases remained at 158, as of June 6.

Russia is considering transferring technology for the production of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Vietnam, President of the Russian Federal Council (upper house) Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko has said.