Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long receives COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine on May 6 morning. (Photo: VNA) Long,54, along with three of his deputies – Tran Van Thuan, 51, Truong Quoc Cuong,60, and Do Xuan Tuyen, 55 – remained at the hospital after the inoculations forfollow-up health monitoring. All of them said they felt fine afterreceiving the injections.
Theminister said the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX is expected to deliver another1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca to Vietnam on May 10, as part of thecommitment to supply some 39 million doses within 2021 and early 2022 toinoculate the prioritised groups as identified by the Government.
Whenthe supplies are more available, eligible people could include students andworkers sent overseas.
Longsaid that the 74 percent of the nearly 1 million doses of AstraZeneca – morethan 800,000 from COVAX brought to Vietnam on April 1 and more than 117,000purchased from the manufacturer that arrived late February – have beenadministered, and the doses could be finished within a few days.
Accordingto a report released on May 6 morning by the National Expanded Programme onImmunisation, more than 90,000 people were vaccinated on May 5.
Intotal, 675,956 people in 48 cities and provinces of Vietnam – primarilyfrontline workers and medical staff – have been inoculated.
Some16 percent of the 600,000 vaccinated people reported typical symptomspost-injection which usually disappear within 24 hours, Long said, adding thatthis ratio is lower than in other countries, while other more severe reactionshave been dealt with.
Hesaid: “We always stressed the need to ensure safe vaccination. Therefore, theMinistry of Health has established a Steering Committee for safe immunisation,which brings together leading experts and professors in all relevant fields tobe ready to assist localities in handling any situation arising during thevaccination drive.”
Thefourth deputy health minister, Nguyen Truong Son, who just returned from thetrip bringing Vietnamese medical supplies aid and experts to help Laos battletheir wave of infections, is currently under quarantine after coming intocontacts with a doctor at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases foundpositive to the virus. His latest COVID-19 test on May 5 was negative./.
VNA
