Vietnam aims to have 95 percent of children aged 12-17 vaccinated against COVID-19 this year

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is striving to give two
shots to 95 percent of 8.1 million children aging between
12 and 17 years old in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Ministry of
Health.

According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen, the
ministry is designing a roadmap implementing COVID-19 vaccination for children,
initially for .

The ministry is scheduled to issue a
guideline on the implementation of the work on October 15.

Tuyen said that the ministry is also reviewing to make a
list of children from 3-11 years old, while seeking vaccine sources. It is also gathering ideas from experts and scientists so as to be ready to make guidance on vaccinations on
this group.

Together with the country’s progress in vaccination, the
education-training and health sector are working together to make plans of
vaccination for particular groups of children, thus generally reopening
schools.

Tuyen asked localities to direct their departments of
Education and Training to review and assess the pandemic prevention and control work in order to allow students to return to
school.

At a working session with representatives from the Ministry
of Education and Training on October 12, said
that the Government has issued a resolution that sets a target of basically
controlling COVID-19 in the whole country by the end of this year, returning to
the new normal situation. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training’s
plans should match that goal, he asked.

The Ministry of Education and Training was requested to review
regulations on pandemic safety at school in the current circumstance when
teachers and parents are fully vaccinated and students aging from 12-17 are to
receive vaccine shots soon.

So far, over 57 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been
injected to people aged 18 years old and above across the country, including over
39 million people, or 54 percent of the total adults, receiving the first shots, and 16 others, or over 22 percent, have got full two shots./.