HANOI, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense has received the second batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine presented by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.
A PLA transport aircraft carrying the vaccine doses arrived late Tuesday at Noi Bai International Airport in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
At the handover ceremony, Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo said cooperating to combat COVID-19 is currently a priority in China-Vietnam cooperation, and that China has by far provided Vietnam with a total of 52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, contributing to Vietnam's master plan for both epidemic control and socio-economic development.
The vaccine aid once again demonstrated the warm friendship between the two countries and two militaries to help each other and fight against the pandemic together, Xiong said, adding that the Chinese side is willing to continue to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, to support Vietnam's anti-epidemic efforts within its capacity.
Thanking the Chinese side for providing the vaccine aid, Hoang Xuan Chien, Vietnam's deputy minister of national defense, said the vaccine aid reflects the friendship of "comrades and brothers" between his country and China.
He said the Vietnamese side will do a good work of distributing and administering the vaccines, better serving disease prevention and control as well as economic recovery.
In August 2021, the Vietnamese military received the first batch of Sinopharm vaccines sent by the Chinese PLA.
According to Vietnam's Ministry of Health, as of Wednesday, the Southeast Asian country had registered over 2.4 million COVID-19 cases, mostly in the current wave of infections which started in late April last year.
