Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long (Photo: VNA)Long chaired a teleconference which was organised on March 6and connected with 700 places across Vietnam to launch the vaccination plan and providerelated training for medical workers nationwide in the use and storage of thevaccine, as well as the treatment of post-injection complications.
He informed the teleconference that the vaccination programme willstart on March 8, although the first batch of vaccine arrived in Vietnam on February24.
“As the vaccine is new, we need to carry out thoroughly,”Long said, adding that Vietnam has to obtain an accreditation certificatefrom the producer and reassess the safety index of the batch of vaccine.
Because of the limited number of vaccine, the ministrycannot allocate for all 63 provinces and cities, but for 13 pandemic-hitlocalities, with priority given to Hai Duong province – Vietnam’s largestoutbreak at present, he added.
The minister asked localities which have yet to receive the vaccine to prepare and maketraining programmes as the ministry will allocate vaccines to them when more aretransported to Vietnam in March.
COVAC and AstraZeneca have agreed to provide 30 milliondoses each for Vietnam this year, the minister said, adding the ministry askedthe producers to hand over the vaccines to Vietnam before September and isnegotiating with Pfizer to buy an additional 30 million doses from this producer.
The ministry has assigned three deputy ministers to beresponsible for directing the vaccinations as this kind of vaccine is injectedfor the first time and injected for adults.
Vietnam will conduct screening check-ups before infectionsto ensure safety, although the process takes more time. The first injections,he went on, will be given to people working on the front line of the fight againstCOVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel.
People getting the shots will be monitored via digitalhealth records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation./.
VNA
