By Phuong Nguyen
HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam has registered to buy a Russian COVID-19 vaccine, state television reported on Friday, citing a new outbreak after several months of going without local business.
Russia said on Wednesday it would roll out the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine within two weeks, dismissing the concerns of experts who said it should not be approved before completing large-scale studies.
“In the meantime, Vietnam will continue to develop its own COVID-19 vaccine in the country,” said state broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV), citing the Ministry of Public Health.
Vietnam has signed up for 50-150 million doses of the vaccine, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Some will be a “donation” from Russia, Tuoi Tre said, with Vietnam paying the rest.
The ministry did not say when it expected to receive the vaccine, or how much it would cost. Last month, the Vietnam Ministry said it would have a home fax by the end of 2021.
Vietnam was praised for suppressing an earlier outbreak through aggressive testing, contact tracing and quarantine, but it is now racing to control infections at multiple locations linked to the popular tourist town of Danang, where a new outbreak on July 25 was discovered.
Vietnam has reported a total of 929 infections, with 21 deaths. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said that the risk of wider contamination is very high, and that the coming days are critical.
Authorities on Friday detained Hai Duong, a city of half a million people east of the capital, Hanoi, after three cases were discovered, the government said in a statement.
The head of Vietnam’s Coronavirus Task Force, Vu Duc Dam, said on Friday that Vietnam now had no choice but to “live safely with the virus”.
“We are implementing the anti-virus measures of a poor country, so everyone needs to stay alert and know how to protect themselves against the virus,” Dam said, according to state media.
(Report by Phuong Nguyen; Edited by James Pearson and Kevin Liffey)
