An elderly woman in Hang Bong ward of Hanoi's Hoan Kiem district receives a vaccine shot in early February 2022. (Photo: VNA)
Vietnam on March 13 crossed the mark of 200 million COVID-19 vaccines administered, just over a year since the ‘historic inoculation campaign’ was launched on March 8 last year.
Of the 200,179,247 million doses given to date, 183,133,205 were administered to the adult population (aged 18 and above). They can be broken down further to 70,911,338 first doses, 67,810,841 second doses, 14,459,451 additional doses and 28,458,438 booster doses.
So far, 47 of 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have achieved a vaccination rate in this age group of higher than 95 percent. The rate is between 90-95 percent in the remaining 17 localities, according to the health ministry.
The number of vaccine doses for children aged between 12 and 17 years of age is 17,046,042, including 8,748,687 first doses and 8,297,355 second doses. About 94 percent of this age group have been fully vaccinated.
Furthermore, 57 out of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities report that the vaccination rate in this age group is over 90 percent.
Vietnam, with a population of nearly 100 million people, reached the 10 million mark in early August 2021, quite late compared to other countries amid a global vaccine shortage, but thanks to concentrated efforts to access vaccines from manufacturers, along with donations during the intense fourth wave of infections in the south of the country, the vaccination campaign has since picked-up pace.
The 50 million dose mark was reached just two months later on October 7, and the milestone of 100 million was achieved over a month later on November 16, with an average of over a million doses a day administered.
The rollout hit 150 million another month later at the end of 2021.
Vietnam ranks ninth in the world for total administered doses as of March 13. The United States are in third place with 556 million doses, India is second with 1.8 billion doses, and China is first with 3.17 billion doses.
The health ministry over the weekend has again called for localities to continue expanding vaccination efforts, especially with door-to-door mobilisation, so as not to miss out on any eligible people (currently 12 years old and above) and to make sure the administration of booster shots is completed within the first quarter of this year.
Medical facilities are asked to thoroughly review their list of patients over 50 years old and people with underlying health issues – who are either under their care or have been to the facilities for medical examination and treatment – to offer them vaccinations and boosters, if necessary.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long has stressed that COVID-19 vaccines are still effective in bringing down the risks of disease severity in the infected cases, hospitalisations and deaths, even with Omicron becoming dominant.
Thanks to the high vaccination rate in Vietnam, the case fatality rate in the country has taken a deep dip – down from 0.9 percent on February 1, 2022, to 0.1 percent on March 3, 2022./.
VNA
