Speaking at a meeting on June 2, vice chairman of the city people's committee, Duong Anh Duc said that the city had brought the Covid-19 pandemic under control thanks to mass vaccinations carried out in late 2021. However new outbreaks may reoccur when vaccine resistance reduces with time.

The official raised concerns over the local people not prioritising taking the fourth vaccine dose against Covid-19 or giving the vaccine to their small children, which may lead to a new outbreak of the virus.

"Many people believe the pandemic has eased and they don't need to take too much of the vaccine," he said. "Many parents are also hesitant to give the vaccine to their children below 12 years old. However, we see that the pandemic's development is still complicated in many countries with the appearance of new variants of the virus, so it would be dangerous if we don't have the vaccine to protect us."

Director of the city's Health Department, Tang Chi Thuong, told the meeting that so far only a third of children aged between 5-12 in the city have been vaccinated while only 1 percent of local people have taken a third dose.

The city vice-chairman asked the health department to continue running communication campaigns to help raise public awareness of the need for booster shots even when the worst of the outbreak in the city has passed.

Amid the slow pace of the vaccination work at many localities, the health ministry has warned that localities that don’t retrieve their allocated Covid-19 vaccines to roll out to the population and let outbreaks happen will be held accountable by the government.

The ministry said that the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology had sent vaccine equivalent to 30 percent of the outstanding demand for a third dose to localities nationwide, but so far 13 localities have yet to pick up their allocations or had written requests to waive the allocated vaccine or to transfer the allocated vaccines to other localities.

Vietnam aims to complete the rollout of the third dose of vaccines in the second quarter of 2022, but to date, with about a month left, booster coverage in the adult population has reached about 57-58 percent.

The country is also providing fourth doses for some groups of at-risk people – people from 50 years old, people from 18 years old with immune-comprised conditions, and frontline (medical staff, workers at industrial parks, etc.) aged over 18.

Nearly 100 per cent of adults and 96.4 per cent of children aged 12-17 in the country have been fully vaccinated.

Source: Dtinews