Avian flu virus

AFP

The Australian Embassy in Hanoi and UNICEF on Monday unveiled a landmark A$13.5 million (US$10.5 million) package to help support the successful introduction and delivery of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Vietnam.

The Australia-UNICEF partnership will provide a unique and holistic package that will assist Vietnam across a range of areas that are vital to the successful delivery of a mass immunization program against the coronavirus, the UN body said in a press release the same day.

“Our support will help Vietnam purchase cold chain equipment to store and transport vaccine doses to where they are needed around the country, provide training courses and materials to ensure Vietnam’s health workers and officials are ready, and assist with the development of immunization plans in Vietnam’s remote provinces to ensure equitable and uniform vaccine coverage,” Robyn Mudie, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam, was quoted as saying in the press release.

Introducing a new vaccine especially for COVID-19 is a colossal task for any government with many important steps involved, said Rana Flowers, UNICEF representative in Vietnam.

UNICEF is committed to working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and other partners to support the introduction and roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in Vietnam, thanks to the partnership with the Australian government, Flowers added.

“No one is safe until everyone is safe, so mass vaccination against COVID-19 is an important step to contain the pandemic, protect frontline workers who serve children and for Vietnam to reopen to the rest of the world,” she remarked.

The package will help Vietnam reach the prioritized 20 percent of its population by the end of 2022 and set the foundation necessary for immunizing the remainder as vaccines are rolled out nationwide.

Funding is drawn from Australia’s A$523.2 million ($407 million) regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative, as well as from its bilateral development cooperation program with Vietnam.

In total, Australia has committed A$40 million ($31 million) over three years to support Vietnam’s vaccine procurement and delivery efforts.

On April 1, 811,200 AstraZeneca doses arrived in Vietnam as part of 30 million shots the COVAX scheme had promised to supply to the country free of charge this year.

The COVAX scheme is a facility co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines as well as ensure fair and equitable access for every country.

The Southeast Asian country received the first-ever shipment of 117,600 AstraZeneca shots via direct purchase from the eponymous company on February 24.

The government has vaccinated over 79,000 people since it launched the national inoculation campaign on March 8, according to the Ministry of Health.

Vietnam has registered 2,791 coronavirus patients as of Monday evening, including 2,475 recoveries and and 35 deaths, according to the health ministry’s data.

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Two Indian men and four Vietnamese people who recently arrived in Vietnam from abroad have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,791, the Ministry of Health reported on Monday evening.

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According to the ministry’s report, the two Indian men aged 31 and 35 recently arrived to work in Ho Chi Minh City and Yen Bai Province. They were sent to quarantine areas upon arrival and are now being treated at local hospitals.

The four Vietnamese patients include three men and a woman aged between 22-67. They recently returned from Japan, Cambodia, South Korea, and the USA to Ho Chi Minh City and Phu Yen and Tay Ninh provinces.

They were sent to quarantine areas upon arrival and are now being treated at local hospitals and healthcare centres.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 2,791, including 910 locally-transmitted cases reported since the new outbreak started in Hai Duong on January 28.

As of 6 pm on April 19, a total of 2,475 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 40,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.

Workers disinfect a fence in Hyderabad, India, where cases are surging

There was good news from Australia and New Zealand as well, as the neighbours opened a travel bubble that will allow people to move between the countries without a mandatory quarantine.

And in Europe, Greece said it would welcome vaccinated travellers from some nations as it sought to restart its badly-bruised tourism sector, while Portugal and Slovenia peeled back virus restrictions as infections eased off.

But India is still facing skyrocketing infections, with hospitals running out of beds and the government forced to reimpose economically painful restrictions.

The capital New Delhi braced for a fresh lockdown as officials scrambled to get surging cases under control.

“Delhi’s health system is at a tipping point. The Covid-19 situation is pretty critical,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.

“If we don’t impose a lockdown now, we will be looking at a bigger disaster.”

Tens of thousands of migrant workers tried to flee the restrictions, fuelling fears they could spread the virus to their rural hometowns

The Delhi lockdown came after the vast nation of 1.3 billion reported a record high of 273,810 infections on Monday — the fifth consecutive day topping 200,000 cases.

India has the world’s second-highest caseload with more than 15 million known infections.

The government said Monday it would make Covid vaccines available to all adults in the country from May 1, in a bid to beat back infections.

The soaring cases forced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to cancel a planned visit to the country this month, and Britain said Monday it would add India to its travel “red list”, banning all arrivals from India except for UK or Irish nationals.

– ‘Get the vaccine’ –

The coronavirus has killed more than three million people, devastating the world economy and upending daily life since first emerging in China in late 2019.

The United States remains the hardest-hit nation, with more deaths and known infections than anywhere else.

But with President Joe Biden’s administration ramping up shots, it made all its over-18s eligible for vaccination beginning Monday.

“We have enough of it, you need to be protected, and you need in turn to protect your neighbours and your family,” Biden said in a video released by the White House.

“So please: get the vaccine.”

The United States also passed a major vaccine milestone Sunday, with roughly 130 million Americans — half its adult population — receiving at least one dose.

But its top pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci warned that the country remains in a “precarious position”.

“We’re having a seven-day average of over 60,000 new infections per day. That’s a place you don’t want to be,” he said Sunday.

“We also have to make sure that people don’t throw caution to the wind and declare victory prematurely.”

Neighbouring Canada illustrated the threat of a fresh coronavirus wave, as authorities scrambled to funnel additional health staff and equipment into Ontario to battle a surge in infections.

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province, and record cases are threatening to overwhelm its healthcare system.

– ‘Cry, hug, kiss’ –

Across the Atlantic, there were glimmers of hope in Europe, as Portugal said it was reopening shopping malls, high schools and universities and that restaurants and cafes were allowed to offer outdoor dining.

“We are impatient to receive our customers again,” said a happy Constanca Firmino, manager of a cosmetics shop in Lisbon.

Slovenia too eased restrictions after cases dropped, while Greece said some travellers from the EU, Britain, the United States, Israel, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates would not have to quarantine if they were fully vaccinated or had a negative Covid test.

Switzerland was also set to start the week with a step towards normality, with outdoor seating permitted at restaurants and bars and cinemas, sports facilities, and in-person classes at universities reopening.

In Slovakia, crowds poured onto the streets Monday as the nation that once had one of the world’s highest per capita Covid death rates emerged from a four-month lockdown.

And in Australia and New Zealand, there was joy and celebration as a long-awaited quarantine-free travel bubble opened across the Tasman Sea.

Family members tearfully reunited at airports in Sydney and Wellington, while others readied for their first outbound flights in more than a year.

“(I’ll) yell, scream, cry, hug, kiss, (feel) happy — all of these emotions at once,” Denise O’Donoghue, 63, told AFP as she prepared to board her plane in Sydney.

“What normal is going to be from now on I don’t know, but I’m just really, really excited today.”