US grants US$4.5 mln to help Vietnam combat COVID-19
VOV.VN - The United States has decided to provide Vietnam with US$4.5 million worth of assistance to support the country’s vaccination and enhance capacity building in COVID-19 prevention.
The grant was revealed during talks on August 4 between Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long and representatives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Centre for Diseases Control (USCDC) in Vietnam.
Dr. Long thanked the US for donating more than 5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility to Vietnam, along with other equipment and budget for COVID-19 prevention.
However, he said given the complicated development of the fresh coronavirus outbreak, Vietnam is in dire need of vaccine supplies.
According to the Minister, Vietnam has signed a contract to purchase 31 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and is buying another 20 million doses. Yet, between 47 and 50 million doses of the vaccine are set to arrive in Vietnam in the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest.
Long therefore suggested that USAID and the USCDC continue to lobby the US Government so that Vietnam can receive more donated vaccines soon in August and September.
He also expected the US will soon provide Vietnam with ventilators to treat severely ill patients and -75 degree Celsius deep freezers to preserve vaccines as announced by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during his July visit to Hanoi.
The USAID representative said that the US Government has reached a contract with Pfizer and committed to share 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine globally. The USAID Vietnam will try to lobby the US Government for Pfizer vaccine aid to Vietnam as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the USCDC representative said the agency is ready to coordinate with MoH agencies in sharing technical matters and experiences in pandemic prevention. In addition, this agency will lobby other organizations for additional support to Vietnam’s COVID-19 fight.
As of 06.00am on August 4 Vietnam has logged 170,563 new cases following the resurgence of the virus in late April, and 1174,461 cases since the start of the first outbreak in the country in January 2020.
