(VOVWORLD) - Vietnam’s largest inoculation program ever began on Monday in 13 cities and provinces hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
 The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine arrives at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, March 8, 2021.
|
The first shots of a COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca have been administered for medical and other frontline workers in Hanoi, HCMC, and Hai Duong province.
For phase 1, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City has been allocated 900 of the more than 110,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine received. Hospital staff who are directly involved in processing, caring for, or treating COVID-19 patients, received the first injections on Monday morning.
 Medical staff of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases prepare for vaccination. |
The same day 100 medical staff at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi’s Dong Anh district and priority groups in Hai Duong were injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“Priority will be given to those who are directly involved in treating COVID-19 patients. All medical workers will be vaccinated when we have enough vaccines,” said Vu Minh Dien, Deputy Director of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
Vietnam plans to inject more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this year.
In Da Nang city, the municipal health sector conducted free examinations and immunity assessments for 300 patients who have been declared free of the coronavirus. The program was jointly organized by the Da Nang Health Department, the municipal Center for Disease Control, the Pasteur Institute of Nha Trang, Japan’s Nagasaki University, and UK’s Oxford University Clinical Research Unit.
 A medical worker of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi’s Dong Anh district is injected with AstraZeneca vaccine. |
Vietnam recorded 12 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.
To date 1,920 of Vietnam’s 2,524 COVID-19 patients have recovered, and 35 have died.