Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked the Health Minister to continue directing, supporting and guiding local governments and businesses in seeking and importing Covid-19 vaccines.

The Ministry of Health is responsible for state management of vaccine quality, licensing, preservation and organization of timely, scientific, safe and effective vaccination; and issuing guiding documents and setting the rate of vaccines that donors to the Vietnam Covid-19 Vaccine Fund can keep for their own use.

The Ministry of Health has coordinated with all ministries and agencies as well as encouraged all localities, businesses and organizations to participate in the search and import of Covid-19 vaccines.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Health will launch policies to further encourage localities and businesses to participate in the search and import of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Ministry of Health will create maximum conditions for all localities, organizations, and businesses in the process of importing and testing vaccines. Even in case the manufacturer requests exemption from liability, the Ministry of Health will be responsible for reporting to the Government and it will be the Government agency to implement.

In case businesses are unable to perform vaccinations, the Ministry of Health will direct the state vaccination system to administer this vaccine.

The Ministry of Health will minimize the time to process administrative procedures, but still ensure quality and safety and prevent counterfeiting of vaccines.

The Ministry of Health encourages all businesses to directly import vaccines into Vietnam, if there is an official authorization from the manufacturer.

For localities that have registered with the Ministry of Health and said they could buy vaccines from businesses, the Ministry of Health is ready to facilitate them in this process.

However, the Ministry of Health noted that there are currently many parties acting as vaccine brokers. Therefore, localities, organizations and businesses should work directly with vaccine manufacturers, or authorized units of manufacturers, not through third parties, to avoid the risk of buying fake vaccines or being scammed, as Interpol has warned.

Vietnam is striving to have 150 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to achieve herd immunity in late 2021 or early 2022.

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