Covid hotspots Bac Giang, Bac Ninh commence worker vaccinations

A total 100 workers from two Bac Ninh industrial parks and 300 from a Bac Giang company were vaccinated on Thursday thanks to collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the People's Committees of both provinces.

Bac Ninh is planning to vaccinate all 90,000 workers in the province. There are around 150,000 workers in Bac Giang.

The two neighboring provinces have recorded the highest number of Covid-19 infections in Vietnam's latest coronavirus wave since late last month. Bac Giang has recorded 1,564 cases and Bac Ninh 654, out of the country's 3,105 infections. Most coronavirus cases recorded in the two provinces are factory workers.

When Vietnam launched its mass Covid-19 vaccination program in March, workers were initially absent from the priority list. But outbreaks in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, with several industrial parks employing thousands of workers, have shown they are among the most vulnerable to Covid-19. As such, factory workers were added to the priority list Wednesday.

The country has inoculated over a million people against the disease using a vaccine produced by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca. Vietnam aims to secure 150 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by next year to cover 70 percent of its population.