A handover ceremony of 60,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by Croatian Government to Viet Nam was held in Budapest, Hungary on October 12.

Vietnamese Ambassador in Hungary Nguyen Bich Thao (L) attends a symbolic reception ceremony of 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, presented by the Croatian Government to Viet Nam

Addressing the event, Croatian Ambassador to Hungary Mladen Andrlić said that Croatia always treasures the traditional ties with Viet Nam and hopes to help the Southeast Asian nation to surmount the COVID-19 pandemic.

In reply, Vietnamese Ambassador to Hungary Nguyen Thi Bich Thao extended sincere thanks to the Government and people of Croatia for the vaccine donation.

As scheduled, the national flag carrier Viet Nam Airlines will send an aircraft to bring the vaccine batch home, along with 12.5 tons of medical supplies worth US$ 380,000 donated by Vietnamese-Hungarian entrepreneur Vu Quy Duong - who is also head of the Vietnamese Association in Hungary.

As of October 10, Viet Nam had received 87.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a report of the Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology. 

To date, nearly 55 million doses have been administered, with some 16 million people fully vaccinated, or 22.1 percent of the population./.