Da Nang began vaccinating children aged 15 to 17 against COVID-19 with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday, in an effort to reach herd immunity and reopen schools early. 

The central Vietnamese city has 102,000 children from 12 and 17 years old, more than 45,000 of whom are aged 15 to 17, according to statistics.

Under a plan issued by the municipal Department of Health, the city’s health workers will inoculate the group aged between 15 and 17 from Tuesday to Friday.

The remainder from 12 to 14 years old will receive the first jabs shortly after until December, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The local health sector has set up 102 teams at 16 vaccination sites across the coastal city and provided training for medical workers, according to Tran Thanh Thuy, deputy director temporarily in charge of the health department.

The municipal Department of Education and Training was assigned to make a list of children eligible for the vaccination, while coordinating with the medical sector to give guidance and support to parents and children on vaccination registration and post-vaccination health supervision.

Da Nang has documented 4,978 COVID-19 community cases since the fourth coronavirus wave hit Vietnam on April 27.

Health workers have given first doses to nearly 99 percent of the city’s adult population, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

While most schools in Da Nang have been shuttered since May 4 for COVID-19 prevention and control, students of Hoa Bac Elementary School and Nguyen Tri Phuong Middle School in Hoa Vang District resumed offline learning on October 20, followed by 12th graders of Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted on October 25.

The municipal administration decided last week to postpone the back-to-school day of all K-12 students to November 15 due to preparations for the organization of the child vaccination campaign.

Vietnam has found 932,357 infections since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year and 927,494 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave erupted.

More than 25 million people in the Southeast Asian country have been fully inoculated.

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