<span style="color: #222222;">Vietnam's first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine, called Nanocovax, is expected to be available by the fourth quarter of this year and put into use in 2022. The announcement comes as more countries try to speed up development of homegrown vaccines amid tight global supply and concerns over the emergence of new strains of the virus.<br />''<br />''Vietnam government said, four local companies were engaged in vaccine research and production and two were undertaking human tests including on Nanocovax and the Covivac vaccine. Vietnam has been relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine so far and since launching vaccinations on 8th March more than 20,000 people have been inoculated.<br />''<br />''<br />''The country has recorded 2,560 COVID-19 infections, with about 60% locally transmitted cases. It has reported just 35 deaths due to the virus.</span>