A high school student in HCM City’s Củ Chi District is vaccinated against  COVID-19 on October 27. VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — The first COVID-19 vaccine shot has been administered to more than 651,000 children aged 12-17, or 92.8 per cent of the demographic, according to the HCM City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only 54 of them showed side effects, all mild like fever and pain at the injection site, Nguyễn Hồng Tâm, deputy director of the centre, said.

“HCM City has completed its vaccination plan for people aged 12 to 17 successfully and safely,” he told a press conference on November 11.

More than 665,000 adolescents had been allowed to receive their first dose of vaccine, but the shots had to be delayed for 14,000 of them following pre-vaccination screening, he said.

The immunisation campaign, using Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, began on October 27. —VNS