On March 8, 2021 Doctor Du Le Thanh Xuan from the HCM City Hospital of Tropical Diseases was the first person getting a vaccination. The vaccine used was AstraZeneca from the first consignment of vaccines arriving in Vietnam.

The vaccine in the first consignment was given to medical workers, who fought Covid-19 on the front lines.

On June 19, the largest ever Covid-19 immunization campaign in HCM City started with 836,000 doses provided.

“This was the largest vaccine allocation campaign for HCM City,” Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said.

In July 2021, the national immunization campaign was launched. In HCM City, both public and private healthcare sectors mobilized for the campaign, which raised the immunization capacity to the highest possible level. With over 1,000 immunization points, HCM City could give up to 280,000 shots each day.

In order to maximize the number of people to be vaccinated amid short supply, HCM City ‘saved every drop of vaccine’. In principle, one AstraZeneca vaccine bottle can be used for 10 individuals. However, medical workers, with suitable needles and technique, could give 11-12 injection shots.

“With the manufacturer’s packing, there are always 1-2 vaccine doses in excess. The number of vaccination shots is higher than the number of doses handed over,” the representative of HCM City CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) said.

In order to speed up the vaccinations, districts and Thu Duc City authorities have sent mobile immunization teams to every house to vaccinate people. Medical workers have worked through lunchtime and weekends to increase the vaccination coverage in the community. Older people and people with underlying health conditions have been prioritized.

The local authorities in Ward 14, District 8 offered 5 kilograms of rice to every citizen getting vaccinated.

The vaccination rate has been increasing rapidly.

As for Vero Cell vaccine, HCM City has used it to vaccinate 3,201,431 individuals so far. Meanwhile, 20,000 Sputnik V doses have been allocated to Thu Duc City which are expected to be used for the vaccination campaign in mid-October.

HCM City, in an effort to rapidly increase coverage, on September 24 allowed to shorten the interval of two AstraZeneca vaccine shots to six weeks instead of 8-12 weeks.

Prior to that, Ministry of Health (MOH) allowed the people who got AstraZeneca vaccine for the first shot to get Pfizer’s vaccine for the second.

Women over 13-weeks pregnant and those breastfeeding babies are prioritized also.

Vaccination – the important solution

As of the end of September, HCM City had provided 10 million vaccination shots.

As of the end of October 21, the city had provided 12,697,067 shots, including 5,558,512 second shots. 99 percent of people aged 18 and above had got the first shot and 77 percent had been fully vaccinated.

As of the end of October 21, the city had provided 12,697,067 shots, including 5,558,512 second shots. 99 percent of people aged 18 and above had got the first shot and 77 percent had been fully vaccinated.

According to the Covid-19 vaccination information portal, HCM City has been allocated 14,091,264 vaccine doses, which means an allocation rate of 19.1 percent, the highest level in the country.

Do Van Dung from the HCM City Medicine and Pharmacy University noted that vaccine coverage has changed views about fighting the pandemic. If people had not been not vaccinated, there would have been five severe cases using ICU (intensive care unit) treatment and two deaths for every 100 cases.

Director of the HCM City Healthcare Department Tang Chi Thuong said HCM City has an advantage in that it was prioritized for vaccines, which helped create immunity for the community and reduce the mortality and morbidity rates.

Nguyen Duc Thai, a Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) scientist sharing the same view, commented that the Government has made great efforts in implementing vaccine diplomacy to get vaccines for the country. This has allowed HCM City to obtain enough vaccines for its needs.

However, experts point out that HCM City needs to learn a lesson from the immunization organization. On the first days of immunization, too many people gathered at immunization points, which raised the cross-infection risks among people. Meanwhile, the software products used to manage the vaccinations were unsynchronized, which caused difficulties for people.

Following encouraging results in vaccinations, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son has instructed the healthcare sector to continue to vaccinate people aged 18 and above in October.

“HCM City has enough vaccines to vaccinate migrant workers who return to work in HCM City,” Deputy Director of the HCM City Health Department Nguyen Huu Hung.

MOH is planning to also vaccinate children aged 12-17. “Vaccines will be prioritized for areas where students are about to return to school,” Son said.

HCM City said it will vaccinate children soon after MOH decides which vaccines will be used and gives guidance on training medical workers.

However, Thai warned that HCM City’s vaccination achievements are still not ideal as the world is facing new coronavirus variants and the virus is getting smarter.

“Previously, virus spread quietly, attacking older people and people with underlying conditions and then young people. Now, new variants such as MU and Delta Plus are spreading more rapidly than the old variant, which is a warning about the need to have a new strategy to cope with them. If not, the achievements so far may be lost,” Thai said. 

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