Vietnam approves Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use

The Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine – PHOTO: MINISTRY OF HEALTH

The Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology was registered on August 11, 2020, by the Russian Ministry of Health.

Sputnik V is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine and has been approved for use in emergencies in over 50 countries. The Russian vaccine is administered in two shots, three weeks apart, has a six-month shelf life and needs to be stored at -18 degrees Celsius.

The vaccine is 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, according to results published in The Lancet.

On March 16, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev arrived in Hanoi with 1,000 doses of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, which Russia donated to Vietnam on an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vietnam approved British drugmaker AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine in early February and received more than 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in mid-February. The vaccination campaign began on March 8 and over 36,000 people in 16 cities and provinces nationwide have been injected to date.

In related news, Professor Dr. Dang Duc Anh, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said shipments of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam would be delayed due to the global vaccine scarcity.

The shipment of 1.37 million doses provided by Covax Facility and another shipment of 2.8 million doses, which are expected to arrive in Vietnam in late March and late April, respectively, would arrive late.

The shipment of Covid-19 vaccines provided by Covax Facility scheduled to arrive in the third quarter of this year would not be available until 2022.

Nearly 30 million doses that Vietnam Vaccine JSC purchased from AstraZeneca are expected to arrive in the second and third quarters of this year. However, they would also arrive later than planned.

The Ministry of Health expected to have 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, both locally made and imported, in late 2021 or early 2022. The ministry is negotiating with Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and some other vaccine manufacturers for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines. However, none of them has come up with a specific supply timeline for Vietnam.

Source: thesaigontimes.vn

Collected by My Nguyen