USAID, UNICEF donate 590 vaccine refrigerators to Vietnamese remote areas: At the handover ceremony. (Photo: VNA)

“USAID and the US Government are proud to continue our strong collaboration with the Government and people of Vietnam in jointly addressing the national and global challenge of infectious diseases," Myat Htoo Razak, USAID’s Senior Global Health Security Advisor, said at the handover event.

"We value the partnership and commitment from the Government of Vietnam, particularly the Ministry of Health, National Expanded Immunisation Programme,” he said.

The vaccine refrigerators – HBC-80 model – will be delivered to 590 hard-to-reach communes in 12 provinces in northern and central regions of Vietnam.

The model can maintain cold conditions for vaccines that must be stored at a temperature range of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius, which is required for the majority of vaccines managed under the Expanded Immunisation Programme.

With a storage capacity of 61L, each refrigerator will be able to store enough vaccine doses for routine immunisation and targeted COVID-19 vaccination in the communes.

The support is crucial to ensure that vaccines are safely stored and delivered at commune level, enabling children to be vaccinated as soon as they are due – rather than waiting to collect vaccines from a higher-level storage facility that is far away, Maharajan Muthu, Chief of Child Survival and Development at UNICEF Vietnam, said, affirming that UNICEF is committed to continue supporting the strengthening of the health system not only at the national level but also to ensure strong capacity at the community level.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID and UNICEF worked with the Ministry of Health to bolster communication campaigns providing useful information to the public, as well as to support with the infection prevention, control and response efforts.

USAID, in partnership with UNICEF, said it will continue to support Vietnam in improving the capacity of immunisation systems.