S. Korea to donate 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam as its Dung Quat refinery is back to full operations

SEOUL/HANOI, Oct 12 (Reuters): South Korea will donate 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Vietnam and 470,000 doses to Thailand, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday.

The donations come as South Korea has administered nearly 80% of its 52 million population with at least one dose of a vaccine, KDCA said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical is back running at full capacity to meet a rising demand for refined fuel products, the company said, as coronavirus movement restrictions ease.

"The Dung Quat refinery has raised its output to meet the market's rising demand for diesel oil," it said in a statement, using another name for the same refinery.

The 130,000-barrel-per-day refinery in central Vietnam cut its output to 80% of capacity early last month amid widespread lockdown throughout the country.

Vietnam has over the past weeks gradually relaxed its coronavirus curbs as new infections fall. Average daily cases were 4,441 in the week ending Oct. 10, from 7,413 the previous week.

Vietnam resumed flights on some domestic routes from Sunday, and will restart inter-provincial bus services from Wednesday, the government said.

Binh Son said, however, that the pace of demand for gasoline products remains slow.

Dung Quat commenced commercial operations in 2009, becoming Vietnam's first refinery. It meets about 30% of the country's demand for refined fuels. - Reuters