Over the past month, there have been more than 45,000 new cases recorded nationwide, with an average of over 1,500 cases recorded daily. Indeed, a total of 3,000 cases were documented on August 18 alone.
Deputy Minister Son has therefore asked localities to ensure on-time vaccination of the elderly with underlying diseases in order to ensure fully vaccine efficacy for the local population.
With the emergence of new strains, the Deputy Minister suggested that hospitals co-ordinate with the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the Pasteur Institute in order to monitor the new variations and mutations in severe cases and deaths. He also asked localities to re-evaluate human resources, equipment, and chemical materials in a bid to respond promptly to every possible situation.
According to an assessment conducted by the Ministry of Health, the vaccination progress against COVID-19 in some localities has yet to meet the set requirements, especially regarding the third and fourth jabs and injections for children from five to 12 years old.
Regarding the third injection, so far, the country has reached 75.2% of the total population, although the injection rate in some localities is very low and has not yet reached 50%.
For the fourth injection, by the end of August 20 the rate stood at 68.3%, although in some localities the injection rate reached roughly 66% of the national rate.
With regard to vaccinations for children from five to 12 years old, after more than four months of vaccinations taking place against COVID-19, the national average rate of first doses is 80.1% and the second is 50.5%.
Many provinces and cities have been slow-paced in vaccination of both doses, with figures much lower than the national average.
According to details given by the Ministry of Health, the COVID-19 pandemic is seeing a sharp increase in terms of the number of infections both domestically and internationally. This comes as the nation has recorded the appearance of new sub-variants of the Omicron (BA.4, BA.5, BA.2.74, BA.2.12.1) which typically spread rapidly.
Recently, the whole country reported an average of over 2,000 new cases per day, indicating that the number of cases is on the rise again, with nearly 18,000 new cases recorded last week.
Facing this situation, the Ministry of Health has urged localities to continue accelerating vaccination efforts against COVID-19 according to the goals set by the Government and the Prime Minister, thereby ensuring safety, science, and effectiveness.
The Ministry also requested that localities continue to closely monitor the pandemic situation, especially the appearance of new variants in order to proactively outline scenarios and plans to respond to all possible pandemic situations.
