The Ministry of Health has requested authorities in Vietnam's 63 cities and provinces to prepare plans to offer the third and fourth booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine to fully-vaccinated people from next year.

The booster plan is necessary for building the scheme of COVID-19 vaccine use in 2022, according to the health ministry.

As a large number of COVID-19 vaccine doses are scheduled to arrive in Vietnam from now until the end of this year, the ministry requested every city and province to accelerate vaccination to promptly increase vaccine coverage and prevent new outbreaks.

Local officials must review the numbers of children aged 3 to 11, 12 to 15, and 16 to 17, and people from 18 years old to project the vaccine volumes for these age groups.

Based on the local statistics, the health ministry will formulate the vaccine distribution plan for November and December 2021 and the inoculation scheme for 2022, including giving out the third and fourth COVID-19 jabs to suitable populaces. 

Earlier, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health called on the municipal People’s Committee to administer a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine to high-risk groups and frontline forces before continuing with the current immunization program.

The department also sought to administer the third and fourth doses to designated recipients from next year while inoculating children aged three and younger.   

Health workers have administered over 83 million vaccine doses, including 1,277,565 shots on Monday, since vaccination was rolled out on March 8.

More than 25 million people have been fully inoculated.

Health authorities target to inoculate at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

The Ministry of Health said that it had distributed nearly 105 million doses to 63 cities and provinces by the end of October 29.

Vietnam has detected 932,357 infections since the COVID-19 pandemic first appeared early last year and 927,494 community transmissions in 62 provinces and cities since the fourth virus wave emerged on April 27, with 821,989 of them having recovered from the respiratory disease.

The death toll had jumped to 22,205 after the ministry registered 74 fatalities on Tuesday, including 31 in Ho Chi Minh City and 19 in Binh Duong Province.

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