Ho Chi Minh City started using 19,000 doses of Vero Cell COVID-19 vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) to inoculate people on Tuesday.

The vaccination has been carried out as per the request of local tech giant FPT Group, Nguyen Hoai Nam, director of the municipal Department of Health, told a press conference on the same day.

The 19,000 Vero Cell COVID-19 vaccine shots were allocated to Ho Chi Minh City by the Ministry of Health on July 6.

Nam added that the city’s related agencies are waiting for instructions from the health ministry to handle another one million doses of Vero Cell vaccine that the municipal authorities have received from a company's sponsorship.

Hai Phong already sent a request to borrow 500,000 shots of this batch from the southern metropolis.

When the instructions are provided, they will be announced to the press, the director said.

The city has received a total of 4,111,040 vaccine doses from the Ministry of Health, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.

It organized four vaccination phases from March 8 to June 30, administering a combination of 923,050 doses.

City authorities have continued to conduct the fifth and sixth rounds of vaccination from July 20 to the present, using 3,187,990 doses allocated.

As of 12:00 pm on Monday, 2,439,118 injections out of the 3,187,990 vaccine doses have been given out.

The vaccination speed has increased rapidly in recent days, averaging out at more than 200,000 jabs per day, and is expected to accelerate to 250,000-300,000 shots daily.

It is estimated that the city will use up the remaining 913,204 doses by the end of Thursday.

The municipal People’s Committee has requested the Ministry of Health to provide about 5.5 million additional doses of vaccine this month to achieve the goal of immunizing over 70 percent of city dwellers.

Nationwide, more than 11.3 million vaccine doses have been administered, of which over one million are second jabs.

The Ministry of Health on Wednesday morning confirmed 4,802 new COVID-19 infections, including 2,128 cases in Ho Chi Minh City, taking the national tally to 232,937 patients, with 80,348 recoveries and 4,145 deaths.

Since April 27, Ho Chi Minh City has accounted for 131,879 infections out of the country’s total of 228,990 cases.

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