Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Photo: VOV)

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on October 12 sent a letter to his U.S. President Joe Biden to express gratitude to the U.S. Administration for donations of vaccines, medicine, and medical supplies, and equipment to help Viet Nam combat the Covid-19 pandemic, according to VGP.

In the letter, President Phuc states that he appreciates the efforts made by the Biden administration to support countries in the world in containing Covid-19 outbreaks and overcoming the difficulties brought by the pandemic. He expressed a wish that the US would continue to assist Vietnam in the fight against the pandemic, and Pfizer would early deliver to Vietnam 31 million doses of vaccine as it had committed during his visit to the company’s headquarters in New York last September so that the country could inoculate children from 12 to 18 years old, VNA cited.

The same day, the Health Ministry’s National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology held a ceremony in Hanoi to receive 77 ultra-low temperature freezers out of a total of 111 freezers to store the Pfizer vaccine funded by the US Government through the US Department of Defence. Of the 77 freezers originally offered to Vietnam, 14 will remain at the NIHE for national-level distribution, and 63 sent to regional distribution centers throughout the country. An additional 34 units have been requested by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam has received another 1,999,530 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses from the U.S. via Covax, bringing the total number of doses from the U.S. to Vietnam to 9.5 million, according to VN Express. Of the doses, 1,209,780 arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on October 7 and 8, while 789,750 doses arrived in Hanoi on October 8 and 13, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam. More doses would come in the future, it added. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, the U.S. has committed more than US$26.7 million in Covid-19 assistance to Vietnam, the release said.

Vietnam receives ultra-low temperature freezers from US (Photo: Nhan Dan)

Other countries have also pledged to sent Vietnam Covid vaccines in the past few days. Turkey would donate 200,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, its vice president, Fuat Oktay, told Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 13. Speaking to the Vietnamese PM by telephone, he also promised "several" oxygen generators and other medical equipment for treating Covid-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. At the time of going to the press, it was not known which vaccine Turkey planned to provide.

Chinh thanked the Turkish government for the gesture and said he looked forward to sharing experiences and working closely with Turkey in combating the pandemic and reopening the economy.

The Parliament of Latvia has made plans to transfer 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam. In a letter sent to the Latvian parliament last week, Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue thanked counterpart Inara Murniece for the vaccine support, calling it a "noble gesture." Hue said Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be assigned to complete necessary procedures to receive the vaccine as soon as possible.

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