Hanoi to offer free Covid-19 vaccinations to local residents aged 18-65

Hanoi will inject Covid-19 vaccines for free to local residents aged between 18 and 65 who are not included in prioritized groups for vaccination.

The recently-approved vaccination plan of Hanoi sets the target of inoculating 95% of local residents against Covid-19 this year and the next year to build community immunity.

Hanoi sets the goal of injecting the Covid-19 vaccines for free to local residents aged between 18 and 65. Photo: Ngoc Tu

Under the plan, the drive will cover two groups. The first one consists of prioritized people, including frontline medical staff, army and public security officers, diplomatic officials, and customs officers, among others.

The second group includes people from 18 to 65 years old, who do not belong to the prioritized groups.

The capital will mobilize human resources from medical establishments and training facilities to conduct the Covid-19 immunization campaign, with funding from the State and municipal budgets as well as other legal sources.

According to Hoang Duc Hanh, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Health, 95% is the vaccination coverage percentage after the city subtracts about 5% of the people who are contraindicated to the Covid-19 vaccine or have symptoms of cough and fever and must delay the injection.

With a population of about 10 million people, Hanoi needs at least 5-6 million doses worth more than VND1 trillion (US$43.6 million) for the first round of vaccination to build herd immunity.

Among the hardest-hit localities, Hanoi is still at high risk of infection. Accordingly, Hanoi will use 91,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine delivered by the Ministry of Health to inject four priority groups, with the inoculation drive set to run until July.