Ministry urges people to get vaccinated against COVID-19

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son speaks at the meeting (Photo: baochinhphu.vn)

Hanoi - The Ministry of Health on December 27 held an online meeting connecting with 63 provinces and cities nationwide, spotlighting the importance of vaccination to everyone.

As part of activities to respond to the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness (December 27), the event also emphasised the role of authorities at all levels, domestic and foreign agencies and organisations in vaccination in general and inoculation against COVID-19 in particular; as well as people's responsibility for immunisation programmes.

Addressing the event, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam Kidong Park said the COVID-19 vaccine is an unprecedented success when safe and effective vaccines were developed within a year, and more than 8.6 billion doses of vaccine have been used. He highlighted Vietnam's efforts in securing COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinate the vaccines for eligible people in a short time.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son stressed that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam has actively implemented drastic measures to prevent and control the pandemic, with monitoring, testing, tracing, quarantine and treatment effectively conducted in various flexible forms.

According to the deputy minister, as of December 24, nearly 144 million of does of COVID-19 vaccines were administered. The coverage rate of at least one shot of vaccine, and full two japs is 79 percent and 66 percen of the national population, respectively, exceeding the target set by the WHO by the end of 2021.

He suggested localities to stay vigilant and closely follow the situation, as well as strengthen monitoring, and tracing measures.

Attention must be paid to managing high-risk groups and organising mobile vaccination programmes to ensure that people in risk groups are not missed, he added.

Vietnam must complete the injection of second jabs for people aged 18 and above by December 31, and for children aged between 12-18 in January 2022, and the vaccination of third shot for people aged 18 and above in the first quarter of 2022, Son said.

He appealed all people living in Vietnam to join vaccination programmes.

In his speech at the event, Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Hieu said the ministry will continue to make maximum efforts to accompany the health sector in prevention, preparedness and cooperation, especially in vaccine diplomacy, in order to effectively respond to epidemics.