PM demands accelerated COVID-19 vaccination rollout

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh urged subordinate levels to accelerate rollout of vaccinations for COVID-19, giving priority to allocating vaccines to the Mekong delta localities.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting on Saturday, Pham said more than 120 million vaccine doses landed in Viet Nam, of which nearly 89 million doses have been administered.

The Government chief ordered that the remaining doses must be inoculated by the end of November.

According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, Viet Nam has signed deals or reached agreements with foreign partners to secure 195 million doses this year. The country is expected to receive additional 38 million doses via the COVAX facility this month.

As many as 94.7 percent of people aged 18 and older in 19 Southern cities and provinces have taken the first jabs.

The Vietnamese Government’s strategy-to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible now, especially those over 50 years old–is the right one, said Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) Guy Thwaites in his interview with the Viet Nam Government Portal.

Though global vaccine supply has been notoriously difficult, especially for low and middle income countries, the Vietnamese Government has managed to acquire significant numbers of vaccines and is currently giving shots to around one million people a day. This is a remarkable effort”, he emphasized.

As Viet Nam shifted away from “Zero COVID-19” strategy to safe adaptation to the pandemic on October 11, vaccination is the key to help the country gradually resume social and economic activities.

The core of the new strategy is to flexibly and effectively contain the pandemic while speeding up economic recovery.