Students receive COVID-19 vaccine shots at a high school in the northern province of Phu Tho in late November 2021. (Photo:VNA) The survey was conducted as a requirement from the Government inpreparation for the rollout of COVID-19 shots for young children, after Vietnam reacheda high coverage rate in the population aged 12 and older.
As many as 415,000 parents in 63 localities of the country were asked fortheir opinions in this online survey carried out by the Health Strategy andPolicy Institute.
Around 60.6 percent said yes to the vaccines, 7.6 percent said they would onlyagree when the shots are mandated, 29.1 percent said they areconsidering/undecided, and 1.9 percent said they disagreed with vaccinatingtheir children.
Vietnam is set on using Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shots for this agegroup, with the Government recently approving a decisionto purchase nearly 22 million doses of the vaccine.
The rollout likely starts within the first quarter when the vaccines aredelivered, but no exact information on the timeline and number of childrenexpected to get the shots have been made available.
Forty four countries in the world have vaccinated children aged 5-11 yearsagainst COVID-19, with 75 percent using the Pfizer shots, according to thehealth ministry, which is completing procurement procedures with the USpharmaceutical company.
Health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said vaccination of children aged 5-11 yearswould be on a recommendation basis and not obligatory, and stressedthat safety would be the highest priority.
The health ministry said they would provide fresh training for health workersat all levels on paediatric vaccination, while guidelines will beissued with regards to safe practices and post-vaccination side effectsand medical observation, according to Duong Thi Hong, deputy director of theNational Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.
The rollout of the vaccines to children aged 5-11 years will be conductedsimilarly to the past administration of shots to children aged 11-17years, meaning school-attending children will be vaccinated at their schools,while the remaining have vaccines at local medical stations.
Children with underlying health issues and chronic conditions will have theirvaccines at hospitals to guarantee safety.
All information on the vaccination will be made available to parents toraise awareness, boost willingness and allow parents to betteraccompany health workers in monitoring child health after receivingthe vaccines, Hong noted.
To date, 16.3 million Pfizer vaccine shots have been given tochildren aged 12-17 years in Vietnam, including 7.86 million second doses.
Over 95 percent of children in this age group had received at least one dose ofvaccine by the end of January./.
VNA
