COVID-19 immunization should be sped up so the entire adult population is given the third vaccine shots within the first quarter of next year, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed in a notice issued on Thursday.

As the pandemic has developed complicatedly in some localities, with new infections on the rise and numbers of serious patients and deaths remaining high, fast inoculation is imperative, the PM said.

Specifically, all people aged 18 and older must be given the second shots by December 31 and the third doses within the first quarter of 2022, except for those with contraindications, according to the notice.

Meanwhile, the second dose vaccination for children aged 12 to 18 must be completed in January 2022.

It is important not to miss immunization for qualified people, especially those aged 50 and older or with underlying health conditions.

The Ministry of Health on December 17 decided to shorten the waiting time between the second and the third vaccine doses, which generally refer to both booster shots and additional primary jabs, from six to three months.

In addition to accelerating COVID-19 inoculation, concerned agencies and authorities of all levels must keep a close watch on the new variant of concern Omicron that has spread from southern Africa to around 90 countries and territories, the PM said.

Administration leaders of centrally-run cities and provinces and heads of steering committees for COVID-19 prevention and control of those localities must be responsible for their local vaccination progress.

The health ministry, meanwhile, must secure adequate supply of vaccines, timely vaccine distribution, provision of vaccination guidance, and must control the safeness and efficiency of the vaccination drive.

In order to prevent penetration of the Omicron variant into Vietnam, the ministries of Health, Transport, Public Security, National Defense, and Foreign Affairs must coordinate to detect any people who enter Vietnam by air, sea and land from countries or territories affected by the strain.

Rapid COVID-19 tests must be given to air passengers before and after flights, all suspected infection cases must be put in quarantine and related gene sequences must be performed to identify Omicron infections, the notice said.

As of Thursday, health workers had administered 76.52 million first COVID-19 vaccine shots, 64.1 million second jabs and 1.7 million third doses to people nationwide, according to the health ministry.

Among the population aged 18 years and older, the coverage of the first vaccine shots has reached around 97 percent and that of two full doses has hit 84.3 percent.

Meanwhile, more than 76 percent of children aged 12 to 17 have received their first doses.

The country has received 171.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses out of the 200 million jabs that have been contracted, the ministry reported. 

Since the pandemic erupted in Vietnam in early 2020, the Southeast Asian nation has documented 1,604,712 infection cases, including 1,184,428 recoveries and 30,531 deaths, the ministry’s data shows.

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