Prime Minister Phạm Minh speaks at a conference on COVID prevention with the leaders of all 63 provinces and cities on Friday. Photo chinhphu.vn

HCM CITY — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has called on cities and provinces to prioritise vaccination of people living in COVID-19 hotspots like HCM City and provinces with a large number of industrial parks.

Speaking at a national conference on COVID prevention on Friday (July 30), he said further: “Priority must be given to frontline medical forces, pandemic volunteers, community COVID-19 groups, seniors, people with underlying medical conditions, and those involved in supply chains.” 

Việt Nam has recorded 141,122 infections as of Saturday noon.

The situation remains dire in the south, especially in epicentre HCM City where there are more than 88,000 cases and Bình Dương Province (13,400). 

The National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control will work with the Ministry of Health and specialised agencies to work out vaccination priorities based on the pandemic situation and supply capacity.

Chính urged ministries and other agencies to speed up vaccination by promoting vaccine diplomacy and public-private co-operation to buy vaccines as quickly as possible.

Cities and provinces need to ensure timely, effective and safe vaccinations, he said.       

He called on HCM City and southern provinces to tighten preventive measures to reduce the number of infections and, more importantly, the number of deaths. 

“There is currently no cure for the disease. We must continue with preventive measures such as social distancing, speed up vaccinations and increase people’s awareness of the highly contagious Delta variant.”

He said many people are still not fully aware of the risks of the more transmissible variant, and thus fail to strictly comply with pandemic prevention measures.

Some places have not yet strictly implemented social distancing measures, and people still go out without any requirement, gather in groups and do not wear masks, he said. 

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said the pandemic would remain capricious until herd immunity is achieved through vaccination.

He called on cities and provinces to donate vaccines to HCM City for it to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible.

He encouraged workers who came from elsewhere to remain in HCM City and get vaccinated so that they can resume work as soon as the pandemic is under control. 

HCM City to speed up vaccinations

Speaking at another meeting on Friday Dương Anh Đức, deputy chairman of the city People’s Committee, said everyone above 18 in HCM City would be vaccinated.

To speed up the task, the city plans to set up mobile vaccination facilities in addition to fixed ones. 

The work would be carried out even at night to speed it up.

According to city authorities, most vaccines used in the city now are from the Ministry of Health. Between July 22 and 30 the city administered some 490,000 doses.

Nguyễn Văn Nên, secretary of the city Party Committee, the target is to vaccinate two-thirds of the city’s population aged above 18 by August.

The city plans to extend the social distancing period by one or two weeks in August, he added. VNS