Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Tran Van Son chaired the press briefing on June 3 (Photo: VOV)

Deputy Minister of Health Truong Quoc Cuong said the Ministry was tasked with importing at least 150 million doses to vaccinate 70% of the population aged 18 and over. He said that to acquire the doses as soon as possible, the Government has created favorable conditions for businesses, corporations, and localities to import vaccines.

“Pfizer committed to supply Vietnam with 15.5 million doses in the third quarter and a similar amount will be delivered in the fourth quarter. AstraZeneca and COVAX committed to Vietnam 30 million vaccine doses and Russia will be providing 20 million doses. Vietnam plans to buy around 170 million vaccine doses, but delivery is expected to take a long time,” said Cuong.

Deputy Minister of Finance Ta Anh Tuan said that although securing more vaccinations is crucial, the price of enough doses to vaccinate the entire population will be huge, at 1.1 billion USD. Vietnam will use the State budget and mobilize enough private donations to buy and vaccinate the people, he said.