Over 200,000 Vero Cell doses administered in HCM City

More than 200,000 doses of China-produced Vero Cell COVID-19 vaccine have been given to local people throughout Ho Chi Minh City since August 13, with all of them being in a stable health condition following their injection.

A local resident in HCM City receives a shot of Vero Cell COVID-19 vaccine (Photo: plo.vn)

Nearly 93,000 people were vaccinated on August 15, of whom 90% received the Vero Cell shot, said Duong Anh Duc, vice chairman of the HCM City municipal administration.

He went on to say that the southern city will continue to administer the vaccine to local people over the course of the coming days.

According to Duc, HCM City has received two batches of the Vero Cell vaccine. The first one million doses are being administered, while another one million doses are being examined for local use by the Ministry of Health.

Developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), Vero Cell was first approved for emergency use by the WHO in May, and given conditional approval for use in Vietnam on June 4.

In an official press release issued by Sinopharm in Vietnam in late May, the Chinese company stated that the efficacy of Vero Cell stood at an estimated 79.34%.

In total, 3,589,489 people in HCM City were inoculated from July 22 to August 15.

At present, the southern metropolis has received 4.4 million doses of vaccines from the Ministry of Health, including 3.6 million Astra Zeneca doses, 19,000 Vero Cell doses, approximately 55,000 Pfizer doses, and 571,000 Moderna doses.

All vaccines allotted by the Ministry of Health will have been used up as of August 12. The city will continue to administer the one million doses of Sinopharm's Vero Cell vaccine.

HCM City aims to vaccinate seven million people aged 18 and above by the end of August.