This is part of the ministry's vaccination report sent to the Prime Minister on August 11. 

As of August 11, 253,071,094 doses of vaccines had been administered in Viet Nam including 234,636,494 for people aged 12 and above and 18,434,600 for those in 5 to 11 age group. 

Vaccination rollout has been sped up over the past months following the request by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

The request was made amid the rising number of COVID-19 infections, with the detection of some new sub-variant of Omicron. Meanwhile, many localities have yet to complete the injection of the vaccines they had received.

The National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology reported that 21.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have yet to be administered, mostly Pfizer and Moderna.

At the same time, 16 out of the 63 provinces and cities nationwide have yet to submit their registration of vaccine demand for the last six months of the year as requested by the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, the progress of the injection of the first and second booster doses as well as the vaccination of children between 5-11 years old have lagged behind schedule.

Representatives of the World Health Organization and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Vietnam underlined that COVID-19 is still a global public health emergency, stressing that vaccination is still an effective measure against BA.4 and BA.5, along with influenza A and common flu./.