COVID-19: Vietnamese government sends mass texts to citizens asking for cash to fund vaccine programme

Vietnam is asking members of the public to donate money that can be used to buy, import, research and produce COVID-19 vaccines. The country is currently being hit by its biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, with nearly 60% of its infections recorded in the past month. And the government has now sent mass text messages to citizens requesting financial contributions to a £777m special fund for the COVID vaccination programme. It comes as the country announced Russia had agreed to provide it with 20 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine this year.