Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung and Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan pose with Romania Ambassador to Vietnam Cristina Romila when receiving 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca on Wednesday. VNA/VNS Photo Lam Khanh

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung expressed sincere thanks to the Romanian Government and people for the valuable and timely support to Vietnam.

He affirmed this was a noble gesture that proved the loyal friendship between the two countries, which has been cultivated by generations for more than 70 years.

Dung highly appreciated Romania as the first European Union member to donate vaccines to Vietnam, saying that it would make a practical contribution to the prevention of COVID-19 in Vietnam.

He expressed his thanks to Romanian Ambassador Cristina Romila for playing an important role in mobilising the Romanian Government to donate vaccines to Vietnam. He also asked the Romania Government to consider the possibility of ceding the surplus vaccines to Vietnam.

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan affirmed that the Ministry of Health would soon put this batch of vaccines into use in the most effective way.

Romania Ambassador Cristina Romila said that after the phone call between President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on July 14 as well as the letter from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu on July 19, the Romanian Government decided to increase the donated number of vaccines to 300,000 doses, three times higher than the original plan.

She said the Romanian Government always remembered the valuable support of medical face masks and medical supplies from the Vietnamese Government and the Vietnamese community in Romania in their early stages of the pandemic.

Vietnam was the first Asian country Romania donated COVID-19 vaccines to, she said.

She affirmed that Romania would continue supporting Vietnam and firmly believed that Vietnam would soon put the pandemic under control.

Source: Vietnam News

Vietnam to receive 30 million doses of Pfizer vaccine soon

In 2021, the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology will receive a total of 31 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. So far, the institute has received 1.2 million doses.