Vaccination of children carried out safely

The vaccination of children aged between five and 11 years old have been carried out safely at many localities over the past few days and no incidents have been recorded so far.

Medical sectors have been well prepared in terms of human resources, equipment and medicines to provide emergency treatment in case of adverse reactions to vaccinations.

The psychology of both parents and children is stable.

In order to ensure safety, the Ministry of Health trained medical workers on administering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for the children as well as how to respond to reactions after inoculation.

The ministry has also provided consultancy for parents and teachers about the organisation of vaccination at schools and guided them on how to monitor children's health after being vaccinated.

Bắc Giang Province started to inoculate sixth-grade pupils on Tuesday after receiving 18,600 doses of Moderna vaccines, which have been approved for children between five and 11 years old.

The vaccination site of Hoàng Văn Thụ Secondary School in Bắc Giang Province was set up with a table and two medical workers, an area to screen for children before getting vaccinated, an area designed for monitoring children's health after being inoculated and an area used for data management.

Present at the vaccination site were medical workers from the provincial General Hospital and experts in children's health, who were sent to provide professional support during the vaccination process.

The pupils underwent careful health screening before getting vaccinated. After being inoculated, they had their health monitored for 30 minutes, before returning to classes.

The school has 204 sixth-grade students, however, only 60 of them are eligible for inoculation for this round of vaccination.

The school's principal Nguyễn Sỹ Ngọc said most parents had agreed for their children to be vaccinated.

Dương Hà Ngọc, a sixth-grade student from Hoàng Văn Thụ School, said: "I felt a little bit worried before getting the vaccine. And I felt a little pain when being injected but it is ok now. My family agreed for me to be administered and I myself want to be inoculated to prevent the disease."

The provincial Department of Health asked local hospitals to set up mobile vaccination and emergency teams with enough equipment, medicine and vehicles to be ready to provide emergency treatment when needed, according to the department's deputy director Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương.

Southern Đồng Nai Province also started to administer COVID-19 vaccines to children aged between five and 11 years old on Tuesday.

At Trần Hưng Đạo Secondary School in the province's Biên Hòa City, hundreds of parents and children were present from 7am to prepare for their children's vaccination. Most of the parents said the vaccination is needed to prevent COVID-19.

Trần Lệ Hoa, a mother of a sixth-grade student, said parents have expected their children to be inoculated against COVID-19 for a long time as they return to school and face a high risk of being infected with the virus.

Thanks to the vaccination campaign, parents now feel more secure in letting their children back to school, she said.

Around 500 students of the school will be inoculated during this campaign.

There are more than 400,000 children aged between five and 11 years old in Đồng Nai.

In Quảng Ninh Province, all 119 sixth-grade students of Trần Quốc Toản Secondary School, who were the first children to be vaccinated last Thursday when Việt Nam kicked off the vaccination campaign for children, are in stable health condition, according to deputy director of the provincial Department of Health Nguyễn Minh Tuấn.

The province plans to continue to administer around 20,000 doses of vaccines for children in the age group between April 20 and 22.

Quảng Ninh has 181,000 children aged between five and under 11 years old.

To ensure safety for children, the province organised training for medical workers who are entrusted to vaccinate the children and assigned emergency teams at each vaccination site.

Other localities, including Hà Nội, HCM City, Hà Nam, Tuyên Quang, Yên Bái, Bình Dương, Cao Bằng, Hải Dương, Hà Giang, Sơn La and Bắc Ninh provinces have also begun to vaccinate this age group.

Hà Nội and HCM City kicked off the campaign to immunise the children on Saturday. As of Monday, the two cities had administered around 78,000 vaccines to children aged 5 to 11 years old, starting first with six graders before moving down the age range.

As of Monday, Việt Nam had injected 209,816,927 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 38,944 doses for children aged from 5 to 11 years old (one dose).

The country has so far approved two vaccines for use on children aged five to 11, which are Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The recommended gap between doses is four weeks. For children, both doses must be of the same vaccine.

Around 11.8 million children from 5-11 years old in Việt Nam are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.