“USAID and the US Government are proud to continue ourstrong collaboration with the Government and people of Vietnam in jointlyaddressing the national and global challenge of infectious diseases," Myat Htoo Razak, USAID’s Senior Global Health Security Advisor, said at the handover event.
The vaccine refrigerators – HBC-80 model – will bedelivered to 590 hard-to-reach communes in 12 provinces in northern and centralregions of Vietnam.
The model can maintain cold conditions for vaccinesthat must be stored at a temperature range of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degreesCelsius, which is required for the majority of vaccines managed under theExpanded Immunisation Programme.
With a storage capacity of 61L, each refrigerator willbe able to store enough vaccine doses for routine immunisation and targetedCOVID-19 vaccination in the communes.
The support is crucial to ensure that vaccines aresafely stored and delivered at commune level, enabling children to bevaccinated as soon as they are due – rather than waiting to collect vaccinesfrom a higher-level storage facility that is far away, Maharajan Muthu, Chief of Child Survival and Development at UNICEF Vietnam, said, affirming that UNICEF is committed to continue supporting the strengthening of thehealth system not only at the national level but also to ensure strong capacityat the community level.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID and UNICEF workedwith the Ministry of Health to bolster communication campaigns providing usefulinformation to the public, as well as to support with the infection prevention,control and response efforts.
USAID, in partnership with UNICEF, said it willcontinue to support Vietnam in improving the capacity of immunisation systems./.