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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

Vietnam begins Covid-19 vaccination drive without China-made shots

  • Vietnam, the only Asean nation that has yet to publicly state if it will use the Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccines, begins inoculations on Monday
  • Analysts say anti-China sentiment among the public and diplomatic tensions are two factors behind the spurning of the vaccines

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A health official sprays disinfectant on the first shipment of AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccines after its arrival in Ho Chi Minh City on February 24. Photo: AFP
Sen Nguyen
Hanoi resident Hoang Cam Hang, 25, is looking forward to her Covid-19 vaccination. Vietnam, which has among the lowest total reported coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia, will launch its immunisation drive on Monday with over 117,000 doses of the vaccine developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
The programme will initially be conducted in 18 hospitals treating coronavirus patients, and in areas with higher infection numbers, Vietnam’s health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said on Friday.

But while Hang – who has a background in health care and works for a health care non-profit group – said she would confidently take any vaccine approved by Vietnamese regulators, one made in China would be her last resort.

“Besides what’s available in the public health care system, the next option for me would be the vaccine from Russia, then the US, then the one from China if there is no other choice,” she said, adding that her decision was based on their reported efficacy rates.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has an average efficacy rate of 70 per cent, according to various trials, while Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine provides around 92 per cent protection, according to late-stage trial results published in medical journal The Lancet. In Israel, the first real-world test of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that Vietnam has also approved for emergency use found that it was 94 per cent effective.

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