(photo: laodong.com.vn)

The Vietnamese government, ministries, and sectors are working hard to find vaccine supply sources. The government has set up a working group to promote vaccine diplomacy. Party and State leaders have held meetings and phone calls with leaders of other countries and pharmaceutical groups to ask for vaccines. Leaders of ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses have joined the effort.

Through the global COVAX Facility, many countries have delivered vaccines and other medical aid to Vietnam to fight the pandemic.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, head of the vaccine working group, said, 'Pursuing a consistent policy of protecting people’s health, the Vietnamese Party and State have mobilized all available resources at home and abroad and accelerated mass vaccination in order to recover socio-economic activities as soon as possible. The government is determined to vaccinate Vietnam’s population. It is conducting vaccine diplomacy to obtain as much medical equipment and COVID-19 vaccines as possible as soon as possible.'

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son praised the vaccine strategy to mitigate the negative socio-economic effects of the 4th pandemic wave being driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus.

'Our vaccine strategy is very important for adapting to the new normal, because it will produce herd immunity once 80% of the population is vaccinated. I think this strategy should focus on HCM City and other pandemic hot spots,' said Mr. Son.

The government is mobilizing resources to purchase vaccines. So far, 384 million USD has been mobilized. The National Assembly has voted to allocate 53 million USD from 2020’s remaining health care budget to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.