Vietnam to boost Covid-19 vaccination rate

A health worker gives vaccine information to a member of the public in Hanoi. - VNA/VNS

HANOI (Xinhua): Vietnam has called for an intensified effort in Covid-19 vaccinations by provincial and municipal health sectors, local media reported on Tuesday (April 18).

The country's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) has allocated 832,900 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to all 63 provinces and cities nationwide, local newspaper Vietnam News reported.

The vaccination rate does not equal across the country, and many localities have lower rates, below 80 per cent, the newspaper said.

Phan Trong Lan, director of the General Department of Preventive Medicine, said that the number of Covid-19 cases might continue to increase, while the country is still at pandemic level one, which is low risk.

More than 266 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered so far in Vietnam, with 51.6 million people aged 18 years and older having received their third dose, the newspaper said, citing reports from localities.

In the past week, the South-East Asian country recorded more than 2,600 new Covid-19 cases, an average of nearly 400 new cases per day.

For more than three and a half months, it has not recorded any fatalities related to Covid-19, according to the newspaper.