Thai Binh determined to early complete COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Thai Binh (VNA) – The northern province of Thai Binh is focusing its efforts on implementing a COVID-19 vaccination campaign as part of the biggest-ever national vaccination campaign that was launched in July.

Vaccination, along with strict adherence to the “5K message” given by the Ministry of Health, which are khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration), is defined as the solution that Vietnam is applying to reign in the pandemic.

Pham Nam Thai, Vice Director of the provincial Health Department said that Thai Binh is conducting the first phase of the vaccination campaign, which concentrates on injecting COVID-19 vaccines to prioritised groups, including forces working at the frontline in the pandemic fight.

In this first phase, the locality has set up more than 70 vaccination stations in hospitals, medical stations at provincial and district levels as well as private medical facilities. In each district, five medical stations with good infrastructure and personnel are selected to serve vaccination activities. At all vaccination stations, medical workers directly engaging in vaccination activities have been given training on the work. Meanwhile, the provincial General Hospital and all hospitals at district level have been requested to prepare necessary equipment and personnel in order to be ready to give first aids to people suffering severe reactions after injection.

As of September 14, Thai Binh had completed three vaccination phases, during which more than 27,000 people were injected with first vaccine shots, and 24,000 others received full two shots.

Thai said that currently, Thai Binh has about 1.4 million people aging from 18 years old subjected to COVID-19 vaccination. The provincial health sector has coordinated with other sectors as well as cities and districts to ensure suitable vaccination distribution. Basically, the vaccination campaign is on good progress, Thai added.

In order to ensure vaccination safety, all vaccination stations and people directly engaging in the activities have been asked to strictly follow guidelines provided by the Ministry of Health. Emergency teams have been formed in hospitals and medical centres to timely handle any arising incidents during the vaccination process at vaccination stations. Thai affirmed that vaccination activities have been conducted safely in the province, while all post-vaccination issues have been coped with in a timely manner.

Regarding Thai Binh’s vaccination plan to April next year, Thai said that the province has issued a plan to implement the campaign with two major goals of ensuring that 90 percent of local residents aging from 18 receive the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, and more than 70 percent of the population are fully vaccinated against the pandemic by April 2022.

Under the plan, the vaccination will be conducted in different phases, with up to tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered each day during peak periods. In the first phase, staff members of provincial departments, sectors, agencies, associations and public organisations will be vaccinated against COVID-19, while the second phase will focus on workers in local firms, industrial parks and industrial clusters. In enterprises with more than 200 workers, vaccination activities will be held right on site.

To date, Thai Binh has set up more than 320 vaccination stations across the locality. All medical workers at the stations have been trained in line with guidance from the Ministry of Health. After completing vaccine injection for workers, Thai Binh will concentrate on giving the vaccines to people with underlying diseases, the elderly, and workers in companies having less than 200 workers.

In order to ensure the highest efficiency of the campaign, Thai underlined the significance of careful preparations and the strengthening of the mass media’s efforts in popularising the benefits and role of vaccination.

Besides, management agencies, the administration, organisations and enterprises should make accurate list of people subjecting to COVID-19 vaccination, he said, adding that it is crucial to increase the application of information technology in vaccination management./.