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VNA seeks nod for transporting Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam

By Le Anh

A Vietnam Airlines aircraft is parked at an airport. Vietnam Airlines affirmed that it has sufficient facilities and resources for the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines – PHOTO: COURTESY OF VIETNAM AIRLINES

HCMC – Vietnam Airlines JSC has proposed Vietnam’s national health authority allow it to transport Covid-19 vaccines to the country, affirming that it has sufficient facilities and resources for the transportation.

A Vietnam Airlines representative today, February 24, said that the national flag carrier had prepared all the essential resources to meet the stringent requirements for transporting the vaccines by air, including logistics services, modern cold storage facilities, well-trained personnel and frozen product transportation procedures in line with international standards, especially ultra-cold containers to store the vaccines.

These are special conditions for the transportation of the vaccines, as they need to be stored at cold temperatures.

Apart from that, Vietnam Airlines has years of experience in transporting medical supplies such as medicines, operation equipment and organs for transplantation. The carrier had operated dozens of flights carrying organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys for transplantation under extremely strict storage conditions, tight time constraints and long distances of thousands of kilometers among localities across the country.

Such flights require tight cooperation between the relevant units and the health sector. Vietnam Airlines can meet this requirement thanks to its comprehensive transport system.

The carrier can also operate wide-body aircraft such as Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 to many global destinations to carry home the vaccines.

Further, the carrier has already set up a special unit ready for the transportation of the vaccine upon a request from the authorities.

Earlier, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam had proposed the Ministry of Transport assign local airlines to conduct the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau detects five Covid-19 cases after Indonesian sailor dies

The Saigon Times

Health care workers in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province take samples from residents for Covid-19 testing. Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province detected five positive Covid-19 cases, but there is no risk of community transmission – PHOTO: NLDO

HCMC – After a sailor onboard an Indonesian cargo ship sailing in the waters off Vietnam’s coast died, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Center for Disease Control took samples from 20 other sailors onboard for Covid-19 testing and detected five positive cases.

The provincial center said on February 24 that it has now taken samples from the five sailors for a second test and sent them to the HCMC-based Pasteur Institute.

If the second test results come back positive, the ship will have to return to Indonesia.

After the death of the sailor, the Ocean Amazing ship departing from Indonesia stopped in the Vietnamese waters on February 20 to bring his body into the mainland and conduct procedures to take him home. The cause of death remains unknown.

The body of the sailor remains on the ship, along with the other sailors, and there is no risk of community transmission, the local media reported.

First doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine arrive in Vietnam

The Saigon Times

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. Vietnam today, February 24, received the first batch of the vaccine – PHOTO: VNVC

HCMC – The first 117,600 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by British drugmaker AstraZeneca in association with the University of Oxford arrived at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCMC today, February 24, to meet the country’s high demand.

A representative of Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) said the batch was part of the 30 million doses of the vaccine that VNVC had earlier ordered. It signed a contract to import the vaccine with AstraZeneca last November, the local media reported.

The Ministry of Health has facilitated VNVC to quickly import the vaccine as the pandemic has spread to 13 cities and provinces over the last 27 days.

The ministry yesterday announced 11 groups of individuals who will be prioritized to receive the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccines, including health care workers; those involved in the fight against the pandemic, including members of steering committees, employees at quarantine centers and journalists; diplomatic and customs officials; and police officers and soldiers among others.

VNVC is the unique unit in Vietnam to receive AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine. Its three super-cold warehouses in HCMC, Danang and Hanoi can accommodate three million doses of the vaccine.

Besides the 30 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine ordered by VNVC, Covax Facility has committed to providing Vietnam with some 4.9 million doses free of charge in the first half of this year and 33 million doses in the third quarter.

The Ministry of Health on February 1 approved the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine ChAdOx in Vietnam.

Dead Japanese man in Hanoi diagnosed with new Covid-19 variant

The Saigon Times

A medical worker performs Covid-19 tests. A Japanese man who died in Hanoi City on February 13 was identified to be infected with a new variant of Covid-19 that has never been reported in Vietnam before – PHOTO: MOH

HCMC – A Japanese man who died in Hanoi City on February 13 was identified to be infected with a new variant of Covid-19 that has never been reported in Vietnam before.

Speaking at an online meeting on February 24, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that the new Covid-19 strain has become the fifth variant to be reported in Vietnam.

Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dac Phu, senior advisor at the Center for Emergency Response to Public Health Events of Vietnam, said that the spread of the new strain is not too rapid.

The Covid-19 strain appears mainly in South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and India, Phu added.

Earlier, Vietnam had reported three variants of Covid-19, which originated from Britain, South Africa and Rwanda, and another variant appearing in Danang City in July and August last year.

The Japanese patient, tagged as the 2,229th Covid-19 case, was an expert at Mitsui Vietnam. The 54-year-old man entered Vietnam through the HCMC-based Tan Son Nhat International Airport on January 17 and was sent to a concentrated quarantine center in Tan Binh District’s Ward 2. He tested negative for the disease on January 17 and 31.

On February 1, the man flew to Hanoi City and stayed at a hotel in Tay Ho District. He was found dead in his hotel room at 7.00 p.m. on February 13. His positive test result came out on February 14.

Two of 586 people linked to the patient tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.