Vietnam launches largest-ever vaccination campaign

Vietnam has launched its largest ever vaccination rollout with roughly 150 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine set to be injected nationwide from this month, with the campaign to last until April, 2022.

Vietnam aims to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year or in early 2022.

The vaccination push will be rolled out on a national scale, with the primary aim of ensuring that at least 50% of all people aged over 18 will be injected with the COVID-19 vaccine between now and the end of the year.

Vietnam aims to have 70 million people vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to achieve herd immunity by the end of the year or in early 2022, according to Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long.

As scheduled, the vaccination drive will simultaneously use vaccines from a variety of different sources to increase vaccine coverage for the wider population to ensure that all vaccines are used before their expiration date to minimise waste.

As the campaign will be the largest-scale ever seen in the nation, the vaccine rollout will involve the participation of various ministries and sectors, including the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Information and Communications, and the Ministry of Transport.

According to the Ministry of Health, inoculation priority will be given to medical frontline workers, healthcare workers, COVID-19 steering committees, along with police and military forces directly involved in the fight against the pandemic. This is in addition to essential service operators, such as utility providers and those working for airlines or tourism firms.

Furthermore, people living in pandemic-hit provinces and cities, provinces and cities located in key economic zones, industrial zones, and border provinces, will also receive the vaccine shot.