Of the doses, 1,499,960 arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday night and the rest will arrive in Hanoi on Sunday.

U.S. Consul General in HCMC Marie Damour said: "We are proud to be able to assist Vietnam with more U.S. vaccines, especially with the delivery of nearly 1.5 million of the total doses directly to Ho Chi Minh City, the current epicenter of Vietnam’s fast-growing outbreak," according to a statement by the consulate.

Moderna vaccine doses donated by the U.S. arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, July 24, 2021.

This is the second batch of the vaccines to arrive in Vietnam this month, taking total donations from the U.S. to more than five million doses.

These are part of 80 million doses that U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to donate to various countries, more than half of it under Covax.

Vietnam is a beneficiary of U.S. donations being made under Covax as well as under "regional priorities and other recipients."

As of Sunday, Vietnam has received 7.49 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines through the Covax program - 5 million doses of Moderna and 2.49 million doses of AstraZeneca.

Vietnam approved emergency use of the Moderna vaccine last month.

Five other vaccines approved for emergency are: Russia's Sputnik V, the U.S. and Germany's Pfizer/BioNTech, China's Sinopharm, and British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca's vaccine and the U.S.'s Johnson & Johnson.

Moderna is developed from messenger RNA, or mRNA, which contains instructions for human cells to construct a harmless piece of the coronavirus called the spike protein that triggers an immune response in humans.

The Moderna vaccine is being used by some 53 countries and territories including the U.S., Canada, the European Union, the U.K., Israel and Singapore.

According to the Ministry of Health, about 105 million vaccine doses have been committed to Vietnam from various sources so far.

Vietnam launched a mass vaccination program in March, using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

More than 4.1 million have received their first Covid-19 vaccine shots and 372,353 have received two shots.

Vietnam plans to inoculate 70 percent of its population of 96 million by April next year.

Vietnam aims to have domestic Covid-19 vaccine produced by 2021

Deputy Health Minister Tran Van Thuan has stressed that Vietnam aims to have a domestic Covid-19 vaccine produced by 2021.

US to give Vietnam another 3 million Moderna vaccine doses

The U.S. will provide Vietnam an additional three million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine via the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said Friday.

Khanh Hoa prepares plans to trial vaccine passport

Khanh Hoa, home to tourist hotspot Nha Trang, plans to trial a program to welcome vaccinated foreign tourists later this year with several restrictions.

13,000 shots of Nano Covax vaccine administered to volunteers in third trial phase

As many as 13,000 shots of homegrown Nano Covax vaccine were administered to volunteers aged 18-75 in the third trial phase as of July 14.

Pfizer pledges 20 million vaccine doses for Vietnamese children

U.S.-based pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer will provide 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for Vietnamese children in the last quarter of this year.

Source: VnExpress