A woman gets vaccinated against COVID-19 (Photo: VNA) The institute, which stores COVID-19 vaccines beforedistribution to localities, asked provinces and cities’ health authorities toreview the list of people that should get vaccines to have an estimate of theamount of doses needed.
In February, NIHE allocated 832,900 doses of AstraZenecavaccine with an expiration date of July 9 and July 11 to the 63 provincesand cities nationwide as booster shots for people aged from18.
Over 266 million doses have been administered nationwide, ofwhich about 51.6 million people aged 18 and older have received the third dose,equivalent to 81%. However, this rate is not uniform across the country andthere are still many localities with booster coverage below 80%.
Currently, the number of AstraZeneca vaccines remaining atlocal level storage facilities (not including 204,400 doses in the nationalreserve) is about 300,000. The rate of vaccinations in the first eight days ofApril 2023 is slow, averaging about 1,040 doses per day, which means a lotmight go unused.
According to statistics from the Health Ministry, from April10-16, Vietnam reported 3,325 new COVID-19 cases – the highest in aweek since the beginning of this year. In the past more than 3 months, thecountry has recorded no fatality.
Phan Trong Lan, Director of the Department of PreventiveMedicine, said that in the coming time, the number of new cases may be on therise.
He stressed the need to protect vulnerable groups such asthe elderly, people with underlying diseases, and pregnant women./.
VNA
