HCM City has 900 medical workers to get first COVID-19 vaccine shots hinh anh 1900 staff members of the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases will be the first in the southern region to be injected with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 8 (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Health announced on March 6 that 900 staff members of the municipal Hospital for Tropical Diseases will be the first in the southern region to be injected with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 8.

The selected medical personnel are those directly contacting with, treating, or caring for people classified as risky sources of COVID-19 transmission.

The hospital is chosen as it performs inoculations for people against communicable diseases on a daily basis, thus having experienced human resources for the work. Meanwhile, since the beginning of pandemic, the hospital has been a core establishment for treating severe cases and sent staff to support other COVID-19 treatment facilities in the city and the central region.

On March 5, the municipal Department of Health submitted to the Ministry of Health’s General Department of Preventive Medicine a list of the southern economic hub’s nine prioritised groups for the first  COVID-19 vaccinations.
 
Accordingly, a total of 44,175 people are set to get shots, including 285 medical staff who are treating COVID-19 patients at hospitals, 388 members of local contact tracing teams, 1,362 members of epidemiology investigation teams, 600 from the army, 1,042 from the police force, and 513 working at quarantine sites.

Vaccinations using the recently imported AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to begin in Vietnam on March 8, according to the Ministry of Health./.
VNA