Vietnam has not yet drafted plans to give Covid-19 vaccines to children under five years old, the local health ministry said at a meeting on August 12.
The meeting was held after the government recently instructed the ministry to make plans to vaccinate infants aged six months and above against Covid-19 starting next year. The order came as the government continued to push for greater vaccination coverage amid rising new infections and slow progress of the booster vaccination doses in various localities.
"We'll continue to closely follow instructions from the WHO, watch for experiences from other countries, and study the local demand for vaccination of this age group," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the most important work now is to speed up the vaccination progress for children from five years old and adults as the number of infections have begun to rise again.
"As of August 11, the country administered a total of over 249.36 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine," the ministry said. "We've made a vaccination plan for the final months of this year and 2023."
The ministry added that the country now still had over 12.12 million unused doses. They have worked with the Covax Facility to ask for 1.20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines that have expired in the country. Covax have agreed to send replacement batches to Vietnam through UNICEF.
Source: dtinews.vn