The first shots of a Covid-19 vaccine produced by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca have been administered in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and northern Hai Duong Province for frontline workers.
At around 6:15 a.m., the first vaccine batches left Vietnam Vaccine JSC (VNVC) cold storage to be transported to the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
In Hanoi, specialized trucks delivered vaccines to the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. The cold chain, maintained at a temperature between 2-8 degrees Celsius, is ensured for vaccine storage.
A medical worker at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases checks a vaccine vial prior to administration.
Groups prioritized for inoculation include personnel working for the hospital's infection, emergency and molecular biology departments and its board of directors.
There are two vaccination shifts Monday: one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
In Hai Duong, 80 vaccine doses were transported from Hanoi to Kim Thanh District Medical Center at around 7:30 a.m.
Within the morning, 30 people from prioritized groups, including medical workers and contact tracers, lined up in front of the center to await their turn.
Patients are requested to inform medical workers of any underlying conditions.
Du Le Thanh Xuan (R), 28, an Intensive Care Unit doctor, is being screened for possible illnesses before receiving her vaccination. She is the first to be jabbed in HCMC.
From a corner, deputy health minister Nguyen Truong Son watches over the vaccination process at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases.
At the Kim Thanh District medical center in Hai Duong, four medical workers are in charge of injecting two patients at once. Following their jabs, they would be reminded of their future second shots and how to monitor their own health post-vaccination.
Those that have been inoculated are required to remain behind for 15-20 minutes to check for side effects.
Doctor Nguyen Thanh Phong, head of infection department D, is happy to receive his Covid-19 vaccination. He was one of the first employees at the HCMC Hospital for Tropical Diseases to be jabbed.
Vietnam currently has around 117,500 Covid-19 vaccine doses produced by AstraZeneca for its mass inoculation program. They would be prioritized for 13 cities and localities with Covid-19 outbreaks, which include local Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Covid-19 treatment facilities.
Vietnam is expected to receive 1.3 million more doses within this month as part of the global vaccine access mechanism Covax. More doses would arrive in the coming months, with a total expected number of around 100 million.
