The first imported doses [204,000] of vaccines is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on February 28, triggering a question on who will get vaccinated first.
| Frontline health workers are among the first to get vaccinated. Photo: Minh Quyet/Vietnam News Agency |
First beneficiaries to get vaccinated include those stipulated in Vietnam’s Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases and warning by the World Health Organization (WHO), local media reported.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health earlier said doctors and other staff in frequent contact with Covid-19 patients or people suspected of being infected will be among the first to be vaccinated.
Others on the priority list will be the elderly and those with chronic diseases that make them more vulnerable if they get infected, and officials in the diplomatic service.
In another move, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAA) under the Ministry of Transport has proposed that people working in the aviation industry will be listed among the first people to be administered.
Those who are passenger check-in officers, cargo handling staff, flight attendants, pilots, and air traffic controllers are subject to the shots due to high risk of Covid-19 infection.
CAA also proposed domestic airlines for the transportation of vaccines to Vietnam.
According to the World Health Organization’s COVAX Interim Distribution Forecast as of February 3, Vietnam will get between 4.88 and 8.25 indicative doses, to be delivered within February and in the second quarter.
In a latest move, WHO has listed two additional Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use and COVAX roll-out. The vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio (South Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.
On February 18, Reuters reported that AstraZeneca vaccine faces resistance in Europe after health workers suffer side-effects namely high temperature or headache.
The UN, WHO, and international organizations have pledged to administer vaccines to roughly 20% of Vietnam’s total 100 million population.
In addition, Vietnam is developing four domestic Covid-19 vaccines by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals, the Vaccine and Biological Production Company No. 1 and the Center for Research and Production of Vaccines and Biologicals.
Nanocovax, produced by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, has finished its first phase of human trials and is expected to begin the second one this month while Covivac of the Institute of Vaccines and Medical Biologicals is expected to commence human trials this month as well.
