The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Health have directed the Viettel Military Industry and Telecommunications Group to deploy the vaccination management platform and an electronic health book.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh attends the launching ceremony of the vaccination campaign in HCM City and trialed one of the stages of vaccination. Photo: Thanh Tung

The electronic health book helps people to register for vaccinations and make medical declarations online. It has information about the vaccination site and the expected time of vaccination and necessary information about vaccination through the e-health book.

This saves time for people who need a vaccination, and limits the concentration of people at vaccination sites. Each citizen will be given a QR code. At the vaccination site, they only need to scan the code instead of having to fill in documents.

In addition, the screening examination information (temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, medical history, medication) of vaccinated people is also saved in their electronic health book to help compare symptoms after the vaccination.

After being vaccinated, if there are abnormal health symptoms, the vaccinated person can report through this application to get timely assistance from medical staff.

By using this platform, the dual goals of the vaccination campaign will be achieved: the vaccination will be implemented quickly, safely, and conveniently, and save time for people in large numbers, reducing the load on medical staff. Electronic health data for nearly 800,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City will then be created.

The e-health book can help the vaccination campaign board track the number of people vaccinated at each vaccination site, the number of people who registered but did not receive vaccination, number of people who are not healthy enough to be vaccinated shown via screening medical examinations, common symptoms after vaccination of each kind of vaccine, and number of cases of complications after vaccination.

The use of technology in vaccination is also significant in promoting the implementation of the vaccine passport. A representative of the National Center for Disease Prevention Technology said that Vietnam has had a Covid-19 vaccination management system and will soon have a system to provide electronic vaccine certificates.

Connecting to the national data system

500 workers in the HCM City Hi-tech Park were vaccinated on June 19. Photo: Thanh Tung

The Ministry of Information and Communications will assign a deputy minister and 15 experts to go to Ho Chi Minh City to help the city implement technological solutions to prevent the Covid-19 outbreak. The Ministry will also mobilize the participation of big names such as Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone and VnPost to help fight the epidemic.

On June 19, HCM City Chairman Thanh Phong signed a directive requesting strengthening of measures to prevent and control Covid-19. Under this directive, the city will set up a technology working group to deploy the Covid-19 vaccination management system at the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The largest ever COVID-19 vaccination campaign with 786,000 doses distributed to Ho Chi Minh City also kicked off on June 19.

Ho Chi Minh City is currently a hotspot in the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, so the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control decided to immediately allocate 786,000 doses out of 1 million doses of vaccine donated by Japan to the city.

As many as 650 injection stations will be organised across the city, including mobile stations. The campaign is expected to be completed before June 27. HCM City is speeding up negotiations with vaccine suppliers and looking for vaccine sources, aiming to continue expanding vaccination for local residents, moving towards herd immunity as quickly as possible. It has set a goal that by the end of 2021, two-thirds of the city's population will be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Van Anh - Hai Dang

HCM City kicks off largest ever COVID-19 vaccination campaign

The largest ever COVID-19 vaccination campaign with 786,000 doses distributed to Ho Chi Minh City kicked off on June 19.