Vietnam’s health ministry urges faster vaccination

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health on June 23 urged local authorities to speed up the Covid-19 inoculation program in their localities to catch up with the set plans.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at the meeting on June 23. Photo: Dinh Nam/VGP

The request was made with a special notice given to Ho Chi Minh City as only more than 50,000 doses have been administered out of more than 870,000 doses recently allocated to the southern economic hub.

Nine other city and province namely Can Tho, Cao Bang, Nam Dinh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Dak Lak, Lam Dong, and Tien Giang are also subject to the request due to the slow vaccination pace, lower than 40% of the allocated volume.

“Any locality that fails to complete the vaccination plan as directed, the leaders must take responsibility before the law and the prime minister,” the ministry said in the document.

Thus far, more than 2.77 million doses have been administered since the launch of the inoculation on March 8.

In July, about eight million doses are scheduled to arrive in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Health.

Ho Chi Minh City is coping with the complicated pandemic situation as it continued detecting community transmission, posing threat to the widespread outbreak.

On June 23, Ho Chi Minh City reported more than 100 daily cases for seven consecutive days. So far, the city has recorded 2,074 infections.

Concerning the allocation of the newly-delivered China-made vaccine, the 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses will go to nine provinces, all in the north: Lao Cai, Lang Son, Quang Ninh, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Dien Bien, Cao Bang, Lai Chau and Ha Giang. Many of the aforementioned provinces border with China.

To prepare for the widespread inoculation, Hanoi has built scenarios for the vaccination in which roughly 200,000 doses would be administered per day, according to Dr Ngo Khanh Hoang from the Hanoi Cener for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC).

Binh Duong, the neighboring province of Ho Chi Minh City, is pushing up the massive testing and quarantine to stop transmission clusters in industrial parks. As bordering the hotspot of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong detects locally-transmitted infections daily.

Shortly after Covid-19 attacked the industrial parks, Binh Duong has isolated some areas to avoid further transmission in industrial parks. 

Binh Duong is home to 29 industrial parks, employing more than 1.2 million workers.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam who is also head of the National Standing Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control said at the government meeting on June 23 that Binh Duong needed to be tough in quarantining and isolating, otherwise, it will not only cause economic loss but also make people negligent in anti-pandemic.

On June 23, Vietnam confirmed 217 cases of local transmission, lifting up the tally to 13,947 infections. Meanwhile, the number of deaths stays at 70.

Bac Giang maintains the highest infections with 5,500, followed by Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ninh, the locality houses Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV).

Vietnam's Covid-19 cases. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu