This is the ninth batch delivered to Vietnam under the VNVC’s order of 30 million doses with AstraZeneca, which would be handed over to the Ministry of Health at a not-for-profit price.

The VNVC earlier stated that starting from July, each week, AstraZeneca would ship about 1 million doses of vaccine to Vietnam, and the commitment has been largely kept.

So far, over 6.7 million doses have been delivered, nearly six months after the first batch reached Vietnam in late February.

With the latest batch, Vietnam has to date received about 14.3 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the VNVC's contract, the COVAX Facility and donations from governments, accounting for 62% of the total number of COVID-19 vaccines delivered to the country.

During his phone talks with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on August 19, CEO of AstraZeneca Pascal Soriot pledged to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam on schedule as well as increase vaccine supplies to the country this month.

AstraZeneca will do its best to meet Vietnam’s requests, he said.

The two sides also discussed the progress of AstraZeneca's public health and sustainable development programmes in Vietnam, which are part of the company's efforts to reduce infectious and non-communicable diseases in the Southeast Asian country.

Chairman and General Director of AstraZeneca Vietnam and emerging Asian markets Nitin Kapoor said since July AstraZeneca has constantly made efforts to boost its supply to Vietnam in order to support the country’s national vaccination programme.