Hanoi to administer 4th Covid vaccine jabs this week

The fourth shots will be given to those aged 50 and above, immune-compromised adults and those vulnerable to Covid-19 infections like industrial workers, health workers and others in the frontline of the fight against the pandemic. The goal is to vaccinate 95 percent of the people in the aforementioned groups, the department said.

The exact number of people in Hanoi eligible for the fourth shot is yet to be confirmed. The vaccines used will be those produced by Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca; or the same type of vaccine used for the third shot.

Hanoi is among 11 localities with over 80 percent of its population having received their third Covid-19 vaccine shots, though it has a low vaccination rate among children aged 5-11.

The Ministry of Health has said that vaccination speed was slowing down nationwide as many people don’t want to get vaccinated a third or fourth time.

As of last Sunday, over 222 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered nationwide, including 425,398 fourth shots.

Ho Chi Minh City was the first locality to begin administering the fourth shot, but only 900 people had received it as of June 2, or about 1 percent of the target.