After Indonesia and Thailand, Vietnam also receives more Covid-19 vaccines from China – 500,000 Sinopharm doses

HANOI, June 20 (Reuters): Vietnam has received a shipment of 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses donated by China, the health ministry said on Sunday, as the country is ramping up inoculations to battle against a more widespread outbreak.

The Southeast Asian nation approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use against Covid-19 in early June.

The vaccines will be used for three groups: Chinese citizens in Vietnam, Vietnamese who have plan to work or study in China and people who live near the borders with China, the health ministry said in a statement.

Vietnam’s domestic inoculation programme, which started in March, has so far relied heavily on around 4 million shots of AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Nearly 2.4 million people in Vietnam have had one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 115, 315 have been…