HCMC rushes to finish historic vaccination campaign

The city had last Saturday launched a major vaccination campaign against Covid-19, the biggest in the city and the nation's history. It planned to use up 806,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it has within seven days. These are part of the 966,320 doses provided by Japan.

Nguyen Tan Binh, director of HCMC's Health Department, said Friday that on the first day of the campaign, the city inoculated 877 people at Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Thu Duc City.

The city has then set up many vaccination centers across districts, targetting vulnerable communities and workers at industrial zones.

The campaign has taken up speed in the past three days and by the end of Thursday, 404,700 people have been vaccinated, Binh said.

Another 40,412 people did not receive the vaccine despite showing up. Some decided to halt the vaccination on their own while others had conditions that do not meet the criteria required for getting the jab.

Explaining for the campaign falling behind schedule, Binh said this was the first time the city organized such a vaccination program with such a large number of people.

"There were problems in the coordination between units and maintaining order during the first days."

But if the city can maintain the momentum like on recent days, it can "basically finish" the job by the end of Saturday, he said.