A mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign for Vietnamese from 18 years of age was jointly launched this morning [July 10] by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ministry of National Defence.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the launch. Photos: Nhat Bac

“The goal of the effort is to provide free vaccination for the locals every year to achieve herd immunity nationwide,” said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the launch of the campaign, scheduled to take place from July to April 2022.

According to Chinh, the vaccination rollout carried from March 8 to date was the beginning phase to draw lessons and experience for this mass campaign.

“Around 1.5 million doses will be transferred to the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and a number of southern provinces/cities that are under the pandemic outbreak,” he added.

Overview of the launch.

At the launch, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said this will be the largest vaccination campaign in the country’s history, for which a total of 150 million doses will be administered for the people to achieve herd immunity by late 2021 and early 2022. “The priority is to protect people’s lives with fast and large-scale vaccination,” he added.

The MoH yesterday announced the expansion of priority groups for vaccination to 16, ranging from frontline workers, police, soldiers, to workers providing essential services, teachers, elder people under 65 years of age, workers in the informal sector, poor people, and social beneficiaries.

Minister Long said Covid-19 vaccines are the key solution for Vietnam to fight the Covid-19 and aid economic recovery.

Along with vaccination programs in countries around the world, the MoH is stepping up efforts to access vaccine supplies and around 105 million doses have been committed for Vietnam, he added.

Long said the local authorities would apply IT for vaccination management, for which the people would declare medical information and update their condition via an e-health record app on mobile phones.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh said the capital city has been ahead of other cities/provinces in vaccinating local people with 195,583 doses being administered so far. In the past four phases of vaccination, Hanoi was allocated 17,000 vaccine vials of AstraZeneca, equivalent to 200.000 doses.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh at the launch. Photo: The Hanoi Times

“With sufficient vaccine supplies, Hanoi could administer around 200,000 doses per day,” Anh continued.

The city’s mayor said Hanoi is home to 8.3 million people and 600.000 from other provinces/cities, thus, 5.1 million at the age of 16-65 would need to be vaccinated.

As of July 9, over four million doses were administered nationwide, of which 258,274 have received two doses.

This morning, the MoH received two million doses of Moderna vaccine via COVAV Facility, one million of which have been transferred to HCMC.

Vietnam has 1,853 new Covid-19 cases on July 10 with the majority was from the HCMC (1,320), beating yesterday’s record of 1,616. Of the total, 1,495 were detected in quarantine and isolation zones.

Today marked the highest number of provinces/cities having Covid-19 infection at 31 out of 63. Overall, HCMC recorded the highest cases at 11,615, followed by Binh Duong (1,266), Dong Thap (528), and Hanoi (497).

Since April 27, a total of 24,326 cases of Covid-19 infection has been detected in 58 provinces/cities in Vietnam.