Nine grade students at Nguyễn Trãi Secondary School in Hà Nội's Hà Đông District are given COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday. —VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI — A 14-year-old female student in Nhị Khê Commune in Hà Nội’s Thường Tín District has died a day of getting vaccinated against COVID-19, the leader of the communal authority has confirmed.

She is the second student to die since Việt Nam started the COVID-19 inoculation drive for high school students.

Nguyễn Viết Bình, chairman of the communal People’s Committee said the girl was vaccinated at 8.14am on Saturday.

Early the next morning she had a fever and was taken to Thường Tín General Hospital before being transferred to Bạch Mai Hospital for treatment. She died at 10am on the same day.

Bình said the authorities are conducting an investigation to determine the exact cause of death.

Leaders of the People's Committee of Thường Tín District visited the student's family and offered their condolences.

The National Expanded Immunization Office said a meeting will be held with the medical professional council to further investigate her death.

The city would continue the vaccination drive for students as planned.

On Sunday, a male student from northern Bắc Giang Province died after receiving COVID-19 vaccination. The student suffered serious anaphylactic shock shortly after being vaccinated. He was transported to Bạch Mai Hospital in Hà Nội for emergency treatment and died five days later.

Hà Nội started the COVID-19 inoculation drive for high school students on November 23, using Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The city initiated the vaccine rollout for ninth grader on November 27.

In the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, the city aim to administer COVID-19 vaccines to all children aged between 12-17.

791,921 children are expected to be vaccinated, including 519,547 children aged between 12-16 years old and 272,374 children aged 16-18 years old.

As of Saturday, 36 localities out of 63 in the country, including Hà Nội, Hà Nam, Ninh Bình, Bắc Giang, Bắc Ninh, Phú Thọ, Quảng Ninh, Lai Châu, Lạng Sơn, Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Lào Cai, Điện Biên, Quảng Bình, Thừa Thiên Huế, Đà Nẵng, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, HCM City, Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu, Đồng Nai, Tiền Giang, Long An, Lâm Đồng, Tây Ninh, Sóc Trăng, An Giang, Vĩnh Long, Đồng Tháp, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Kiên Giang, Cà Mau, Bạc Liêu và Hậu Giang, have started vaccinating children aged between 12-17.

The localities would gradually lower the age of children being vaccinated. Currently, many localities have vaccinated children in grades eight and nine.

By Saturday, 3,427,977 doses of the vaccine have been injected for this age group, including 2,892,168 doses of the first dose and 535,809 doses of the second dose.

The coverage rate of first dose is 31.7 per cent and that for second dose is 5.9 per cent of this group’s population.

Khổng Minh Tuấn, deputy director of the Hà Nội Centre for Disease Control said that COVID-19 Pfizer (Comirnaty) vaccine was used to children. Families, parents and caregivers needed to closely monitor children’s health after vaccination. — VNS