Vietnam receives 36 ultra-low temperature freezers from the US
VOV.VN - The United States on October 12 delivered 36 ultra-low temperature freezers to the Ministry of Health at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) to assist Vietnam in storing lifesaving vaccines against COVID-19.
These freezers are the first of 111 ultra-low temperature, medical-grade storage units that the US Department of Defense is providing to the Government of Vietnam with a total value of approximately US$1 million.
These freezers can reach -40C to –90C, suitable for storing vaccines that require extremely cold temperatures. They wil be used to store nearly 3.1 million doses of vaccine the US has delivered to Vietnam since October 2.
Of the 77 freezers originally offered to Vietnam, 14 will remain at NIHE for national-level distribution and 63 are being sent to regional distribution centers throughout the country. An additional 34 units were requested by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City.
The new storage units will greatly improve Vietnam’s capacity and flexibility for distributing and storing COVID-19 vaccines nationwide.
During the course of the handover ceremony, Christopher Klein, Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Vietnam, said the US will transport an additional of 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the country in the coming days.
At present, the US has already presented a total of 9.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Vietnam through the COVAX Facility.
