By Thursday noon, many people – employees of certain businesses and corporations based in the capital city – had lined up in front of the hospital for their vaccine shots.
Medical workers guide people in completing procedures before getting vaccinated, including getting body temperatures scanned.
People lined up in two rows while waiting for their turn. Because of the large number of people who showed up, the lines trailed all the way to the hospital gates.
With many signing up for the same time slot, the place soon became overcrowded. While everyone wore masks, the required distance was not maintained.
At the National Assembly meeting the same day, the secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung called the chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh to inform that the press was covering the crowds at the E Hospital, and the situation called for an "immediate evaluation and suspension."
A man who signed up for vaccination said he had been to the hospital at noon, but only received his shot hours later in the afternoon.
The man said he was an employee at a corporation that had signed up for vaccination, and the company group to be vaccinated Thursday was around 200 people.
A woman had her papers in hand prior to the vaccination, including declaration about any underlying conditions or existing diseases.
Le Ngoc Thanh, director of the hospital, said that while they hospital had already tried to separate groups into different time slots and instructed people to make medical declarations themselves digitally, the sheer number of people turning up proved too much and social distancing measures could not be observed.
At around 2:30 p.m., the hospital announced it would stop receiving people for Covid-19 vaccinations, leaving many people with no choice but to return home.
A representative of the hospital said it would stop providing Covid-19 vaccine shots starting Friday. When it would resume would be decided by the Ministry of Health.
As of July 20, Hanoi had administered about 210,000 Covid-19 vaccine shots, mainly to frontline workers and other prioritized groups.
