Two staff of Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC), importer of Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, stand outside a freezer where the vaccines are kept. arrived in HCMC on a flight from Seoul . They are the first batch of 30 million doses Vietnam had ordered from the company. Only those assigned by the firm could enter and operate within this area. Part of the 117,600 vaccine doses inside the freezer. A staff member uses a forklift to practice unloading a supposed shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Outside the freezer, a staff member places reusable dry ice gel packs into a Styrofoam box. Those boxes would store vaccine doses temporarily when transported from storage to specialized distribution trucks. Each box contains a certain amount of doses depending on the detailed plan of vaccination for each locality as regulated by the Health Ministry. Tran Han Tuan, 37, head of the VNVC warehouse department in southern Vietnam, said the truck is parked 2.8 meters from the freezer’s door and that loading a box takes only ten seconds. Therefore, "all movements must be especially quick and accurate." "We have yet to make any mistakes, but remain quite nervous since the entire nation is counting on this first batch of vaccines," he noted. The back door of the truck will be opened in only one minute to receive the vaccines to ensure their quality remains unaffected by exterior conditions. A package of vaccines is taken out of a Styrofoam box. Each package of vaccines is equipped with a temperature measuring device. If the temperature exceeds the allowable limit (2-8 degrees Celsius), this device will raise an alarm, which means the shipment is not eligible for administration. Two freezer trucks, valued at more than VND1 billion ($43,400) each, will be in use for the upcoming mass vaccination. For now, 13 cities and provinces that have …
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