Vietnam basically assessed as COVID-19 safe zone: Ministry

Woman get vaccinated against COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is basically assessed as a COVID-19 ‘green zone’ – an area where the coronavirus is under control, the
Ministry of Health has announced.

According to the ministry’s latest risk level
statistics, among over 10,600 communes and wards assessed, 90.7% are identified
as ‘s’, 7.8% ‘yellow zones’, and only 1.5% ‘red zones’.

On July 26, the ministry reported 1,460 new infections – the
highest in the past 70 days.

In the face of the pandemic resurgence in some countries, Prime
Minister Pham Minh Chinh has ordered COVID-19 vaccination be sped up in an
official dispatch sent to the People’s Committees of provinces and cities
nationwide, ministries, ministry-level and government agencies.

So far, more than 240 million vaccine doses have been
administered in Vietnam with large coverage of the first and second doses,
which has greatly helped bring the pandemic under control nationwide.

However, the dispatch noted, many localities and agencies
have lowered their guards while authorities in some places haven’t worked
drastically enough, making the vaccination progress lag behind schedule.

Meanwhile, the pandemic remains complicated and
unpredictable in the world, and new waves of infections have occurred in
several countries. has continued to record cases of Omicron’s new
sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, and is facing risks of new outbreaks.

Assigning tasks to the , other ministries
and localities, he demanded a vaccination campaign be launched to complete
inoculation for children aged 5 – 11 in August, finish the administration of
the third and fourth doses to people aged 18 and above as soon as possible, and
accelerate the third shots for those aged 12 – 17.

Vaccination must be completed early for health workers, the
public security and military forces, teachers, as well as those working in the
transport sector, essential service supply, tourism, trade centres,
supermarkets, markets, businesses, and industrial parks.

In the dispatch, the Government leader also asked for more
communications about vaccination, new sub-variants of Omicron and healthcare
guidance, along with stronger examination, supervision and promotion of
inoculation activities./.