Mass vaccination boosted in Mekong Delta

On Tuesday, Can Tho City allocated 500,000 Sinopharm and 40,000 Pfizer doses to its nine districts for mass vaccination.

As planned, from now until December, the city will administer at least 36,000 vaccine doses per day.

The capital of Mekong Delta is one of the localities in the region to boost vaccination after the central government decided to prioritize vaccines for southern localities.

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, vice chairman of Ninh Kieu, the most populated district in Can Tho, said Tuesday the district has been inoculating 8,000-10,000 people per day and in most cases, with Sinopharm.

With a population of 283,000, of whom 70 percent are over 18, the district has vaccinated 20 percent of adults with at least one shot, he said.

Can Tho's vice chairman Duong Tan Hien said in addition to priority groups, including medical workers and the frontline force, the city has boosted injections for its workforce in order to soon restore business and production.

So far, almost 432,000 people over 18, or 26.8 percent of Can Tho's total adult population, have been vaccinated. Of these, nearly 100,000 have been fully immunized with two doses.

Home to 20 million, or one-fifth of the nation's population, the Delta currently has an average first-dose vaccination rate of less than 30 percent.

Since early this month, the region has received more than 300,000 returnees from Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An, the four hardest-hit localities of Vietnam’s latest Covid-19 wave. Many returnees have not been vaccinated.

The Delta’s Soc Trang Province, with a population of 1.2 million and a vaccination rate of only 5 percent, is organizing to inoculate 500,000 more people from Oct. 11, focusing on high-risk areas and the workforce in industrial complexes and business facilities.

In Tra Vinh, Kien Soc Kha, director of the municipal Health Department, said with 500,000 Sinopharm doses allocated by the Health Ministry, the province is boosting progress to administer all as fast as possible.

With an adult population of 765,000, Tra Vinh has so far vaccinated 160,000, with 53,000 given two shots.

Dong Thap Province had also received 500,000 Sinopharm doses to raise the total amount of vaccines it has been allocated to one million doses. Its vaccination rate currently stands at 8.2 percent.

The province is boosting its speed to inoculate 40,000-50,000 people per day, with mobile vaccination stations established at schools and training centers.

With 1.4 million over 18, An Giang Province has been offered an additional one million Sinopharm doses.

Its chairman Nguyen Thanh Binh said the vaccine comes at the right time as workers and vendors resume operation.

To date, only 24 percent of the province’s adult population has received their first shot and just 10 percent their second.

Nationwide, around 55.2 million people have got one shot while 16 million have been fully vaccinated.