Vietnam has to date recorded over 10 million COVID-19 infections, of whom nearly 8.5 million have been given the all-clear.
In the last week, the number of new infected cases in the community decreased by 36.9 percent, and that of severe cases was also down 31.7 percent, while the number of fatalities dropped 26.1 percent.
By early April, Vietnam had received over 230 million vaccine doses, of which over 207 million had been administered.
At a meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control’s 14th teleconference with leaders of 63 provinces and cities, the Vietnamese Prime Minister, who is also head of the committee, stressed that vaccine continues to be a “strategic weapon” in the fight against COVID-19.
Therefore, he asked for the acceleration of giving the third shot to those needed, and the completion of administering the second jab to children aged between 12-18 in April; and the speeding up of the vaccine secure and inoculation for children aged between 5-11 and completing the work in the second quarter of this year.
The government also requested sectors, units and localities to be proactive in terms of treatment drugs, biological products for testing, new vaccines, and in preparing for the appearance of new variants of the coronavirus.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment was assigned to make policies to encourage the production of vaccines, treatment drugs, biological products, and test kits.
The Ministry of Education and Training was required to coordinate with the Health Ministry and localities to speed up vaccination for students and ensure the safe reopening and operation of schools.
Earlier, the first nearly one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged five to 12, financed by the Australian government, arrived in Vietnam on April 9. The inoculation will be conducted following vaccine assessment, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said.
Vietnam has reached agreement on the mutual recognition of vaccine passports with 19 countries as of April 7, said deputy spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Pham Thu Hang at the ministry’s regular press conference.
According to her, the countries are Japan, the US, the UK, Australia, India, Belarus, Cambodia, the Philippines, Palestine, the Maldives, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Turkey, Singapore, Saint Lucia, the Republic of Korea, Iran and Malaysia.
On April 4, the Ministry of Health announced that Vietnam will begin issuing vaccine passports from April 15. The passport will be available on PC Covid-19 or Digital Health apps. If people don’t have the apps, they can get their passports by accessing the health ministry's portal and filling in necessary information. They will then receive the passports by email.
