A pupil being vaccinated at Tan Linh Primary School in Hanoi. - Vietnam News/Asia News Network
HANOI (Vietnam News/Asia News Network): Many parents in Hanoi have decided to allow their children to be vaccinated against Covid-19 before the new school year starts in September.
Nguyen Thuy, mother of a daughter at Ngoc Ha Primary School in Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, said she and her family have decided to allow her daughter to be injected with the Covid-19 vaccine.
Thuy said previously, she did not intend to vaccinate her daughter, however, with Covid-19 cases on the rise, she changed her mind.
“I think vaccination will help to keep my daughter safe as the number of new cases has been increasing,” she said.
“My daughter has just had the first dose so far.”
When the school encouraged parents to register their children for vaccination, many parents agreed.
Le Viet Hong, mother of a primary school pupil in Ba Dinh District, took her child to the vaccination site last Saturday after receiving a notice from the school about the vaccination.
“It is expected to protect my child from the disease,” she said.
Pham Xuan Tung, father of a secondary school student in Ba Dinh District, took his son to the vaccination site last Saturday, a day after the school encouraged parents to allow their children to be vaccinated.
“I felt more secure and safe when my son finished the first dose,” he said.
Hoang Thi Quynh, mother of a student at Thuong Cat Primary School in Bac Tu Liem District, said she applauded the vaccination drive for primary school children especially at this time, about three weeks before the new school year starts.
The second week after the injection, antibodies will be enough to protect the body against the disease, she said.
Therefore, this is the right time for children to get jabs, she added.
Nguyen Van Tai, father of a student at Minh Khai Secondary School in Bac Tu Liem District, said it is very necessary to vaccinate children at this time so that they can safely start the new school year.
On Aug 9, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Tran Sy Thanh signed the Official Dispatch No 03/CD-UBND, on strengthening vaccination against Covid-19.
The department requested that the Hanoi Centre for Disease Control (CDC) promote communications on the benefits of vaccination, the effectiveness and necessity of it against Covid-19 with convincing and scientific information to encourage people to vaccinate, including children from five to under 12 years old.
Following the dispatch, the city’s Department of Health directed the Hanoi CDC, health centres in districts and local hospitals to focus on vaccination for children from five to under 12 years old.
In a related move, local schools have told parents to allow their children to be vaccinated by creating Zalo groups to clearly analyse the benefits of Covid-19 vaccination for children.
Khong Minh Tuan, deputy director of the Hanoi CDC, said currently, the Zalo communication channels between schools and parents are proving very effective.
Statistics show that the city has more than one million children from five to under 12 years old.
However, the number of children receiving the first dose is only about 51.% and the number of children receiving the second dose has only reached 21% so far.
In the meantime, more than 60 countries worldwide have deployed Covid-19 vaccination for children aged from five to 11 years old with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is officially licensed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for children.
