Vietnam’s Ministry of Health said it would vaccinate 100,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to workers in industrial parks in Bac Giang epicenter in 10 days.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (speaking) in the visit to Bac Giang on May 29. Photo: Baobacgiang

Today [May 29], Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh reaffirmed the need to vaccinate workers in industrial parks in Bac Giang to soon resume the operations of hundreds of companies in the visit to the province.

As planned, Bac Giang will get 150,000 doses while Bac Ninh, another hotspot that houses Samsung Electronic Vietnam (SEV) and its vendors, will receive 90,000 doses.

“The ministry will send more health workers to the province for the inoculation program,” according to Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son, who leads the ministry’s task force in Bac Giang.

The doses for Bac Giang and Bac Ninh come from the amount that was already allocated to other cities and provinces nationwide, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said at a meeting today. “We hope that authorities in other localities understand the urgent situation in the epicenters.”

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said in a meeting on May 26 that vaccinating industrial parks’ workers in epicenters became the one of top priorities.

The vaccination for workers in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh started two days ago with the first shots given to those of Funing Precision Component Co., Ltd in Bac Ninh and Fuhong Precision Component Co., Ltd in Bac Giang, two factories of Taiwan-based Foxconn. Foxconn is a major assembler of Apple Inc.

Ten days ago, Bac Giang had to suspend four industrial parks namely Dinh Tram, Quang Chau, Van Trung, and Song Khe-Noi Hoang due to widespread transmission of coronavirus there.

In the spirit of spending all forces for Bac Giang, the hardest-hit locality by Covid-19, health professionals from leading hospitals across the country go there every day to support the treatment of Covid-19 patients, mostly those of critical condition.

In addition, more than 28,000 medical students have been registered to come to Bac Giang which has recorded 1,927 infections as of May 29. The Vietnam Military Medical Academy that intensifies support the epicenters has called for all students to take part in the fight against Covid-19.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son, each day a group of 700 health workers focuses on taking samples for testing in Bac Giang.

The testing results are available within a day thanks to the operation of a newly-installed lab capacity 50,000 samples/day. So far, Bac Giang has conducted nearly 700,000 tests, mostly on workers in industrial parks.

Regarding the pandemic in Vietnam, Covid-19 has swept 33 out of 63 cities and provinces with total 6,792 infections, including 47 deaths.

More than half of the total were detected in the ongoing outbreak that has broken out for a month.