Vietnam starts giving Covid-19 vaccine to children

More than 92% of parents in HCM City have agreed with Covid-19 vaccinations for their children. (Dantri)

By PhongLan
Dantri Online Newspaper, Vietnam

HANOI: Approximately 1,500 students aged 16-17 in Vietnam’s largest epicentre of Ho Chi Minh City were given their first Covid-19 vaccine jabs on a trial basis on October 27.

They were the first young people in Vietnam to have received the vaccine against Covid-19. They had to bring the written consent of their parents or legal guardians to be vaccinated.

At present, the southern economic hub has over 712,000 children aged 12 to 17. A recent survey conducted by the municipal Department of Education and Training showed that over 92 percent of parents have agreed with Covid-19 vaccinations for their children.

The teenagers were given careful health checkups prior to inoculation in line with the vaccination guidelines set out by the local Ministry of Health.

The Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) made in the US is being used to inoculate youngsters in Vietnam. Clinical trials show the Pfizer vaccine was 90.7 percent effective against asymptomatic infection in children.

According to a local official, if the pilot vaccination was carried out successfully, they would expand the vaccination campaign on children aged 12-17 nationwide from November and hope that schools can be reopened safely afterwards.

Speaking at a meeting held on October 26, Vietnamese Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long stressed that safety was a number one priority and they would carry out training courses for all provinces and cities on October 29.

The southeast Asian country has been carrying out the largest ever vaccination campaign against Covid-19 for people aged from 18 and older. As of October 27, Vietnam has administered 75.97 million Covid-19 vaccine shots, with over 22.23 million people having received two doses.

The country has so far reported 900,585 Covid-19 infections with nearly half of the cases coming from Ho Chi Minh City.