Russia has agreed to provide Vietnam with 20 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V this year.

The minister unveiled the information after a working session with the Russian Direct Investment Fund regarding the COVID-19 vaccine on the same day.

At the meeting, Long congratulated Russia on its successful development of the vaccine, stressing that the Vietnamese Ministry of Health approved the Russian vaccine for use in Mach 2021.

Over the past time, the ministry has proactively negotiated with the Russian side to secure the vaccine as soon as possible to serve the country’s inoculation drive, according to the official.

To ensure vaccine security in the years to come, the ministry has viewed cooperation in vaccine production and transfer of vaccine production technologies as a crucial task.

Therefore, the ministry has assigned its units to promptly negotiate and reach consensus with partners in this regard, Long said.

The Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (Vabiotech) is the ministry’s first unit to join hands with the Russia side and expects to begin bottle the Russian vaccine from July, with a monthly capacity of five million doses.

"This is an important step for Russia to transfer its vaccine production technology to Vietnam in the coming time," he said.

Since May, the Ministry of Health and relevant ministries and agencies have actively engaged in talks to get access to COVID-19 vaccine sources, Long said, noting that his ministry is making every effort to secure more vaccines, thus bringing people’s lives to normal.

Although Vietnam is trying to get access to COVID-19 vaccine sources to speed up its vaccination rollout at the earliest, the supply will come under the roadmaps set by producers and distributors, as the country has effectively adopted COVID-19 prevention and control measures, Long said./.VNA

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