Vietnam says Cuba to supply ‘large number’ of its Covid-19 vaccine doses, ready to transfer production technology

Vietnam will receive a major shipment of Cuba’s Abdala vaccine by the end of the year, the Vietnamese Health Ministry said, adding that Havana was also eager to transfer technology to produce the jab in the Southeast Asian state.

The announcement followed last night’s phone call between Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Cuban counterpart Miguel Díaz-Canel, during which the leaders of the two Communist states stressed “the importance of vaccine cooperation.”

“From the current moment till the end of 2021, Cuba is going to supply a large number of doses of its Abdala vaccine against Covid-19 and is also ready to send experts to transfer vaccine production technology to Vietnam,” the Health Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. It didn’t specify the size of the shipment or the timeline for the arrival of the Cuban experts.

The Cuban-designed Abdala vaccine requires three shots, with Havana saying its jab has proven to be 92.28% effective against the virus in last-stage clinical trials in June.

Vietnam, which had been praised for its successful response to Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic, is now seeing a record surge in infections. The country has been recently registering more than 10,000 infections every day, with Sunday’s death toll of 737 people becoming the worst so far. Vietnam’s capital Hanoi and largest city Ho Chi Mihn are currently under lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.

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Like many other nations, Vietnam has been affected by the global shortages in coronavirus vaccines. Hanoi has made deals for more than 70 million doses of the jab with Pfizer, Moderna and AstaZeneca. However, the country has so far received only 23 million of those doses, with further shipments expected in the fourth quarter of the year, according to the health ministry.

But even when they all arrive, Vietnam will still be lacking enough of the jabs to fully vaccinate 70% of its 98 million people by the first quarter of 2021.

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Vietnam’s vaccination drive started in March and was slow to build momentum, with only 1.9% percent of the population being fully vaccinated so far.

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