Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on June 7 reaffirmed the country’s vaccination strategy to curb the Covid-19 pandemic that spreads to 39 out of 63 cities and provinces.

A volunteer gets shot with the homegrown Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: MoH

Accordingly, it’s necessary to mobilize all forces to get the vaccine under two main channels including tech transfer and development of homegrown kinds.

On the same day, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party’s Committee Nguyen Van Nen said the local government rushes to get the vaccines to inject its residents as soon as possible.

Ho Chi Minh City has so far ranked the fourth nationwide for the number of infections with 402 cases in the fresh outbreak. One of its districts has been on lockdown for a week.

In a related move, Nanocovax by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC (Nanogen) will start phase 3 clinical trials this week with the participation of 13,000 volunteers.

Prof, Truong Viet Dung, head of the Research Ethics Committee (REC), told local media that the acceptability of the research after two phases of trials is significant. It would take about two months to ensure enough scientific evidence about Nanocovax that is available for emergency use.

As of June 7, Vietnam has confirmed 8,983 infections, including two-thirds were detected in the ongoing outbreak that flared up in late April. The death toll has stayed at 53.

Vietnam's coronavirus infections. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu

In terms of infections, Bac Giang topped localities for the number of confirmed cases with 3,181, followed by Bac Ninh 1,099. The two provinces are home to Apple’s major assembler Foxconn and Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV), respectively.

In an effort to resume operations of companies in suspended industrial parks (IPs), Bac Giang has conducted massive testing in affected IPs like Quang Chau and Van Trung.

As many as 26 companies have partly resumed operations, including those joining in the global supply chain by Apple, Samsung, and Canon, according to Dao Xuan Cuong, head of the Bac Giang’s Management Board of Industrial Parks.

The only condition for the resumption is strict implementation of countermeasures, Ngoc said, adding that the local government and the Ministry of Health (MoH) jointly check the precautionary measures in each company.

Since May 18, Bac Giang suspended four IPs namely Dinh Tram, Van Trung, Quang Chau, and Song Khe-Noi Hoang which house 375 firms with around 136,000 workers involved.

For safe production, Bac Giang’s authorities have issued a set of safety regulations for companies to apply in their factories. In addition, 35 interdisciplinary working groups have conducted frequent checks on the implementation to decide which companies are eligible to resume operations, according to Chairman of the Bac Giang People’s Committee Le Anh Duong.

In the latest move, the MoH on June 7 required no in-person gathering to watch matches of the Vietnam team at the FIFA World Cup Asian qualifiers as the Golden Dragons will play against Indonesia at midnight Monday [June 7], against Malaysia on June 11, and UAE on June 15.

Vietnamese people love to watch football matches, especially those by their team.