(CNN) Vietnam has approved Cuba’s Abdala vaccine for use against the coronavirus, the government said on Saturday, as the Southeast Asian country battles its worst outbreak of the pandemic.
Abdala becomes the eighth Covid-19 vaccine approved for use in Vietnam, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the region, with only 6.3% of its 98 million people having received at least two shots.
The announcement came hours after President Nguyen Xuan Phuc left Hanoi for an official visit to Havana.
Vietnam has recorded 667,650 coronavirus infections and 16,637 deaths — the vast majority of which were part of the Delta-driven outbreak which began in late April.
