Almost 89,000 children from 5 to under-12 vaccinated against COVID-19 over one week

A child in Hanoi is vaccinated against COVID-19 (Photo: VNA) 

Hanoi, (VNA) – One week after the start of a campaign to vaccinate
 against
COVID-19, a total 88,820 children in the age group had received the first shot as
of April 20.

The Health Ministry has allocated over 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for
children to localities.

The northern province of Quang Ninh was the first locality in
the country to inoculate children in the age group on April 14.

In the capital city of Hanoi, a total 33,382 doses have been
administered to children in the target age group since April 16, with no cases
of serious reactions reported so far.

With more than 1 million children in the age group, Hanoi aims to have at least
95 percent of them fully vaccinated.

The
southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City is carrying out the vaccination campaign for
898,538 children from 5 to under-12 in the city from April 16 to 30.

In a recent online survey conducted by the Health Strategy and Policy
Institute (HSPI) with the participation of 415,000 parents of
children from 5 to under-15, 60.6 percent of the parents supported the
vaccination of children, 7.6 percent said they would let their children get
vaccinated if it is a requirement. Meanwhile, 29.1 percent said they are still
considering the matter, and only 1.9 percent did not agree to let their
children get vaccinated.

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Health Ministry,
there are approximately 11.8 million children from 5 to under-12 years old
eligible for vaccination. Of them, about 8.2 million have not caught
COVID-19. The health sector aims to provide full two shots to eligible children
by the end of the second quarter./.