A medical worker holds up a vial containing the AstraZeneca
Covid-19 vaccine in HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

Over 980,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived in HCMC on Friday morning through both purchase agreement and foreign aid. 

A batch of 580,000 doses are part of 30 million purchased via contract by Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) from AstraZeneca, while the other 400,000 doses are among a million Japan gifted Vietnam.

Ngo Chi Dung, chairman of the management board and general director of VNVC, said its 580,000 doses would be transferred to the Ministry of Health on a non-profit basis so it could be distributed to the people, especially those in coronavirus-hit areas.

A representative with the Japanese embassy in Vietnam meanwhile said its 400,000 doses would be distributed by the Vietnamese government and its medical workforce.

Japan has provided Vietnam with around 2 million vaccine doses, with shipments sent earlier on June 16 and July 2.

Nitin Kapoor, chairman and general director of AstraZeneca Vietnam, said the firm is expanding its vaccine production capabilities, adding it would cooperate with the health ministry, VNVC, WHO and UNICEF to provide Vietnam millions more vaccine doses in the coming months.

So far, around 5.5 million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses have been sent to Vietnam either through contracts, global vaccine access mechanism Covax or government aid, according to the firm.

Vietnam's Covid-19 vaccination campaign since March has inoculated over 3.9 million people, with over 249,000 having received two shots.

The country has recently updated its vaccination target, now aiming to inoculate at least half its population over 18 years of age within this year, and 70 percent of its entire population by April 2022.