580,000 doses of  AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrive at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, 9 July, 2021. (Photo: tienphong.vn)

Ngo Chi Dung, Chairman and Director General of Vietnam Vaccine Company (VNVC), said this is the third vaccine delivery as part of a contract in which the company has pre-ordered 30 million doses from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Vietnam is one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to access the vaccine.

To date, more than 5.7 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to Vietnam through the pre-order contract via the "Global Access to COVID-19 Vaccine" (COVAX), and bilateral aid between governments. Nearly 1 million doses of the amount are contracted by the VNVC and AstraZeneca.

On the same day, a batch of 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine sponsored by Japan landed at Tan Son Nhat airport in HCMC.