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HANOI (Reuters) – Cuba will supply large quantities of its local COVID-19 vaccine Abdala to Vietnam and also transfer production technology to the Southeast Asian country by the end of the year, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.
After successfully containing the disease for much of the pandemic, Vietnam is struggling to control its worst outbreak to date, with an increase in infections and deaths increasing pressure on authorities to speed up vaccinations.
“Cuba will send a large number of COVID doses and a team to Vietnam to support the transfer of technology by the end of this year,” the health ministry said in a statement, without specifying the number of doses.
Cuba said its three-shot Abdala vaccine was 92.28% effective against the coronavirus in the latest clinical trials in June.
Vietnam has so far signed agreements for the transfer of recombinant DNA and mRNA vaccine technology and is also in talks with the US company Pfizer over the location of a vaccine factory in the country.
The Southeast Asian country has obtained more than 23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and expects to receive at least 50 million doses in the fourth quarter, the health ministry said.
Vietnam’s vaccination program, which began in March, is still in its infancy with only 1.9% of the country’s 98 million people fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates in the country. region.
(Edited by Ed Davies)
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