Vietnam officially starts its COVID-19 vaccination on March 8 (Source: NDO)

Vietnam officially starts its COVID-19 vaccination on March 8, with the AstraZeneca vaccine to be given to medical workers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the northern province of Hai Duong first.

Due to the limited amount of vaccines for the first phase of inoculation, the Ministry of Health has decided to allocate AstraZeneca vaccine to frontline health workers and 13 provinces and cities with epidemic prevalence first.  

Early morning of March 8, trucks transported the vaccine from Hanoi to injection sites in Hai Duong – the country’s biggest pandemic hotspot at present and the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases base 2 in Hanoi’s outskirt district of Dong Anh.

The vaccine transportation process ensured proper cold storage and followed all the requisite transport requirements.

As one among 13 localities provided with the vaccine in the first phase, Hai Duong was allocated 33,000 doses, with the Hai Duong Centre for Disease Control receiving the most with 32,000 doses.

According to the set plan, this morning, Hai Duong City Health Centre injected 50 people and the Kim Thanh District Health Centre 30.

This is the first time Vietnam has launched the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, using more than 117,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine imported in late February. This is the first batch of the 30 million doses that Vietnam is expected to receive from AstraZeneca this year under a recently-signed deal with the manufacturer.

It is anticipated to receive another 30 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine this year from COVAX, a COVID-19 vaccination mechanism co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Vietnam is negotiating to import a further 30 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine of the United States this year./.

BTA