An elderly woman in Hàng Bông Ward, Hoàn Kiếm District, Hà Nội receiving a vaccine in early February 2022. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam on Sunday crossed the mark of 200 million COVID-19 vaccines administered, just over a year since the ‘historic inoculation campaign’ was launched on March 8 last year.

Of Of the 200,179,247 million doses given to date, 183,133,205 were administered to the adult population (aged 18 and above). They can be broken down further to; 70,911,338 first doses, 67,810,841 second doses, 14,459,451 additional doses and 28,458,438 booster doses.

So far, 47 of 63 localities have achieved a vaccination rate in this age group of higher than 95 per cent. The rate is between 90-95 per cent in the remaining 17 localities, according to the health ministry.

The number of vaccine doses for children aged between 12 and 17 years of age is 17,046,042, including 8,748,687 first doses and 8,297,355 second doses. About 94 per cent of this age group have been fully vaccinated.

Furthermore, 57 out of 63 localities report that the vaccination rate in this age group is over 90 per cent.

Việt Nam, with a population of nearly 100 million people, reached the 10 million mark in early August 2021, quite late compared to other countries amid a global vaccine shortage, but thanks to concentrated efforts to access vaccines from manufacturers, along with donations during the intense fourth wave of infections in the south of the country, the vaccination campaign has since picked-up pace.

The 50 million dose mark was reached just two months later on October 7, and the milestone of 100 million was achieved over a month later on November 16, with an average of over a million doses a day administered.

The rollout hit 150 million another month later at the end of 2021.

Việt Nam ranks ninth in the world for total administered doses as of Sunday, behind Bangladesh and Pakistan (both 219 million doses). The United States are in third place with 556 million doses, India is second with 1.8 billion doses, and China is first with 3.17 billion doses.

The health ministry over the weekend has again called for localities to continue expanding vaccination efforts, especially with door-to-door mobilisation, so as not to miss out on any eligible people (currently 12 years old and above) and to make sure the administration of booster shots is completed within the first quarter of this year.

Medical facilities are asked to thoroughly review their list of patients over 50 years old and people with underlying health issues – who are either under their care or have been to the facilities for medical examination and treatment – to offer them vaccinations and boosters, if necessary.

Health minister Nguyễn Thanh Long has stressed that COVID-19 vaccines are still effective in bringing down the risks of disease severity in the infected cases, hospitalisations and deaths, even with Omicron becoming dominant. 

Thanks to the high vaccination rate in Việt Nam, the case fatality rate in the country has taken a deep dip – down from 0.9 per cent on February 1, 2022, to 0.1 per cent on March 3, 2022. — VNS