Thai Binh leads in COVID-19 vaccine shots administered during Tet

Thai Binh (VNA) – The northern province of Thai Binh leads the country in the number of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday from January 29 to February 6.

A total of 125,319 doses, including the first, second, booster and additional shots, were given to people aged 12 and above in Thai Binh during the nine-day holiday, said Director of the Thai Binh Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Nguyen Van Thom.

The provincial Department of Health had worked day and night to prepare needed facilities and personnel for the Tet vaccine rollout before the biggest festival of the year started. More than 300 vaccination sites had been set up across all the eight districts of the province.

Thai Binh has so far administered over 2.7 million COVID-19 vaccine shots on people aged 18 and above and more than 295,000 on those aged 12 – 17.

Some 99.16 percent of its population aged 18 and over, or 1.2 million people, are now double vaccinated while the percentage of those aged 12 – 17 is 97.24 percent. About 224,000 people have received additional doses and some 240,000 others got boosters.

The province is leaving no stones unturned to slow the COVID-19 spread as it has reported a spike in the number of the cases over the last several days following Tet. It detected a record high of 450 cases, including 221 community infections, on February 9.

The cases are forecast to rise further in the coming time given that a large number of people had returned to Thai Binh for family reunion during Tet and testing is being accelerated.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee has ordered all local units to take COVID-19 fight seriously, and not lower their guard against the virus nor respond to it with an extreme approach.

According to the Ministry of Health, during the Tet holiday, the first leg of the spring vaccination campaign, 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been inoculated, which was quite low compared to previous average daily vaccinations of about 1 million doses.

By the end of the sixth day of the new Lunar Year (February 6), 182.5 million doses of vaccines had been administered in Vietnam, a country of 98 million people, with two-dose coverage in the population aged 12 years and older hitting 95.5 percent.

Twenty-five percent of adults have received additional/booster vaccine shots.

The Government aims to wrap up the second-dose vaccination for people aged 12-17 years in February, and the provision of third shots for all adults (except for contraindicated people), as well as carry out the administration of vaccines for children aged 5-11 years./.