HANOI (REUTERS) - Vietnam's health ministry said on Wednesday (July 14) that United States vaccine maker Pfizer would provide an additional 20 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine, co-developed with BioNTech, to administer to 12 to 18 year olds.

Vietnam has procured a total of 31 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses. The additional supply would bring the number of doses to 47 million set to be delivered by the fourth quarter of the year, the health ministry said in a statement.

Vietnam is also working with Pfizer on the possibility of a vaccine technology transfer or placing a Pfizer plant in the country to manufacture vaccine, the statement said.

After successfully containing the disease for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has faced a more stubborn outbreak since late April, with a surge in daily infections to record levels adding to pressure on the government to accelerate inoculations.

The country said it would offer Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine as a second dose option for people inoculated with a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine eight to 12 weeks before.

Vietnam's mass inoculation campaign is in its early stages, with fewer than 300,000 people fully vaccinated so far. It has so far used AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccine and last week took delivery of 97,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shot.