The United States will provide an additional 1 million coronavirus vaccine doses to Vietnam, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Wednesday.
The U.S. is offering additional aid to a country currently grappling with a fresh coronavirus surge and stubbornly low vaccination rates.
Harris, speaking at the top of a bilateral meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, said that the doses would begin to arrive within the next 24 hours.
The new coronavirus aid is part of a wide-ranging set of announcements on new partnerships and support for Vietnam.
Harris' address in Vietnam comes amid a days-long trip through southeast Asia. Earlier in the week, she visited Singapore, where she delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea.
“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate, and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” Harris said Tuesday. “These unlawful claims have been rejected by the 2016 arbitral tribunal decision. And Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”
Harris' subsequent trip to Vietnam was subsequently delayed by an "anomalous health incident" in the country's capital of Hanoi. According to Bloomberg, the State Department often uses that phrasing when referring to the "Havana Syndrome" — a mysterious health condition that has briefly sickened several U.S. diplomats in recent years.
Havana Syndrome is typically marked by "unusual physical sensations after hearing strange sounds," though the U.S. has not provided an official explanation for the illness.
