Viet Nam receives an additional 6.27 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom through the COVAX Facility
25 January 2022
Ha Noi, 25 January 2022 – At the turn of the year 2021/2022, Viet Nam received 4,000,230 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Germany, 99,450 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Luxembourg, 159,120 doses of BioNTech/Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Government of Portugal and 2,012,960 doses of Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by the UK, all through the COVAX Facility.
The German Ambassador to Viet Nam, Dr. Guido Hildner, said “Germany has donated vaccines and medical equipment to Viet Nam on several occasions in 2021. With this new shipment of over 4 million doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine via COVAX, Germany continues its ongoing support to Viet Nam to fight and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. The continued high numbers of infections, as well as the Omicron variant spreading at a rapid pace worldwide, show that the pandemic is far from being defeated. In 2022, Germany will continue to show solidarity with Viet Nam in the fight against the effects of the pandemic and provide further vaccines through the international vaccine platform COVAX. We can only defeat the pandemic if it is brought under control everywhere. Therefore, Germany and the European Union support the COVAX vaccine campaign for fair and transparent access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide”.
The recent delivery is the largest German donation of vaccine doses to Viet Nam to date, bringing the total number of vaccines supplied by Germany to Viet Nam to over 10 million doses.
The British Ambassador to Viet Nam, Gareth Ward said “Vaccines are the best way to protect people and prevent the proliferation of new variants. This donation is part of the UK’s support to Viet Nam’s roadmap of opening the economy by facilitating its vaccine boosting at a large scale. We are committed to accompanying Viet Nam to embrace a new chapter in 2022 when we all can live with COVID-19 with peace and prosperity again.”
The UK is currently one of the largest donors to the COVAX Facility, providing over £548 million to supply vaccines globally, including Viet Nam. This contribution also marks the third bilateral vaccine commitment by the UK Government to Viet Nam after the arrival of more than 727,000 doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2021. In 2022, the UK will continue to strengthen the bilateral health partnership by supporting Viet Nam to build a resilient health system through providing vaccines and medical supplies, and by facilitating knowledge exchange opportunities between the two countries.
Representing the Embassy of Luxembourg to Viet Nam, the Honorary Consul in Ha Noi, Mr. Tran Hong Quang, stressed that “no one should be left behind in the fight against Covid-19”. A longstanding supporter of global vaccination efforts, Luxembourg actively engages in multilateral initiatives such as COVAX. In late 2021, Luxembourg doubled its financial contributions to the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment to 4 million EUR in order to support the procurement of vaccines around the world and mitigate the effects of the two-track pandemic. Luxembourg’s support to immunization programs in Viet Nam in fact date back to the 1990’s and the development of a nationwide vaccine cold chain. B Medical System, the leading manufacturer and distributor of cold chain equipment, has since delivered more than 30.000 blood and vaccine cold chain units. An additional 174 refrigerators arrived in June 2021 through Gavi and UNICEF funded projects which will assist with the storage of vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccine.
Ms. Lesley Miller, OIC Representative of UNICEF Viet Nam said: “On behalf of the UN Family, I would like to thank the Government and people of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom for ensuring this timely, and important contribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to Viet Nam. The donation of vaccines from generous countries is proving an essential contribution to the equitable distribution of both initial and booster doses to populations around the world. Nevertheless, still more is needed, and the virus will continue its unpredictable path of mutation and waves of complex outbreaks, until all countries achieve strong vaccination coverage. Viet Nam has proven itself highly efficient in the safe delivery of vaccines, ensuring they are utilized effectively. The Governments who have supported and continue to support COVAX, both financially and through vaccine donations are change makers in the fight against this pandemic.”
With the delivery of vaccines donated by the Government of Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal and the United Kingdom, Viet Nam has received 51,024,180 doses of COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility.
The COVAX Facility is co-led by WHO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations (CEPI) and GAVI – the Vaccine Alliance, and with UNICEF as key delivery partner.
Notes for Editors
Germany:
- Germany co-founded the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) coordination mechanism in 2020 and is its second largest donor with €2.2 billion. By the beginning of December 2021, this has already supplied 144 countries and territories with a total of almost 960 million doses of the vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer.
- Germany will supply 175 million doses of vaccines to emerging and developing countries; 100 million doses of these were made available in 2021. The majority of these doses will be distributed via COVAX. Germany is thus contributing to improved access to vaccines around the world. In absolute terms, Germany ranks second as the largest donor of vaccines worldwide and first within the EU, also in terms of deliveries already made. The EU aims to donate at least 700 million doses by the end of 2022, and the G7 as a whole at least 870 million doses by the end of 2022. These deliveries will be distributed mainly via COVAX.
- COVAX is the vaccine pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a groundbreaking global collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines. COVAX is co-led by WHO, Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and UNICEF as delivery partners. The goal is to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines and ensure fair and equitable access for all countries in the world.
UK:
- The UK has been at the forefront of the global response to Covid-19, including through investing £90 million to support the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Over half a billion doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been delivered at a non-profit price globally, with two-thirds going to lower and middle-income countries.
- Outside of the pandemic, the UK is a close partner of Viet Nam in tackling global health challenges including antimicrobial resistance and non-communicable diseases.
- The UK donated a total of 727,810 doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Viet Nam in August and December 2022 respectively. In addition to this bilateral donation, the UK is one of the largest donors to the COVAX facility, providing over £548 million to supply vaccines globally, including to Viet Nam.
Luxembourg:
- A Gavi donor since 2005, Luxembourg has been a strong supporter of COVAX since the onset of the pandemic and substantially increased its financial support to global health initiatives and organizations.
- Luxembourg has so far committed over 605.000 doses of vaccines via the COVAX facility. In addition to Viet Nam, the first countries to benefit from these contributions have been Rwanda, Ghana, Egypt and Pakistan. Another 56.000 doses of AstraZeneca were delivered to Cabo Verde in September 2021 via the European Union Civil Protection mechanism.
- Bilaterally, and upon request, Luxembourg donated various medical material such as ventilators to India, Nepal and Tunisia, sanitary protection material to China, as well as fridges for vaccine storage to Sudan, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Laos.
For further information, please contact:
German Embassy
- Jörg Kinnen , +84-24-3267-3364; +84-90-3286615; Email: ku-1@hano.diplo.de
- Lê Hồng Hoa, +84-90-402-6681; Email: ku-100@hano.diplo.de
The UK
- Vũ Thùy Liên, British Embassy Hanoi, +84-375624812; email: vuthuy.lien@fcdo.gov.uk
UN
- Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hương, UNICEF Việt Nam, +84-24-38500225; +84-904154678; Email: ntthuong@unicef.org
- Tran Thi Loan, WHO Viet Nam; Tel. +84-91-541-3814; Email: wpvnmmedia@who.int
Media contacts
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UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. For more information about COVID-19, visit https://www.unicef.org/vietnam/covid-19
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