A sixth grade pupil of Lê Quý Đôn secondary school in Hà Nội's Hà Đông District gets a COVID-19 vaccine shot on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyết

HÀ NỘI — Nearly 1,000 sixth grade pupils in three districts of Hà Nội were the first to be inoculated against COVID-19 on Saturday. 

Children in Hà Đông, Phú Xuyên and Sóc Sơn districts received Moderna vaccines.

During this on-going campaign, all sixth grade pupils in the city who are not infected with COVID-19 or recovered from COVID-19 from more than three months, are eligible for the vaccination. 

They will get the second doses after 28 days.

At vaccination sites, medical workers carefully advised parents to monitor the child's health and nutrition after getting vaccinated. Parents are guided to immediately contact medical workers or medical centres for timely treatment in case their children show and unusual health reactions.  

Examining some vaccination sites on Saturday, Director of the municipal Department of Health Trần Thị Nhị Hà said children with underlying diseases or malnutrition or obesity would be given priority.  

Under the plan issued by the municipal departments of health and education and training, the vaccination will be gradually carried out for all eligible children living in the city aged from five to under 12.

Hà Nội has more than one million children in this age range.  

The vaccination will be implemented depending on the amount of vaccines allocated from the Ministry of Health.

A representative of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) said on Friday that it had received around 73,000 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses from the Ministry of Health. 

HCM City starts child vaccines

HCM City on Saturday started to vaccinate children aged from 5 to under 12, with 109 vaccination stations set up across the city.

About 30,000 sixth-grade students were the first to get the shots.

At the vaccination station in Hồng Bàng secondary school, principal Trần Văn Luyện said that the school had coordinated with the medical forces to prepare for vaccination activities.

Luyện said that 93.5 per cent of parents of sixth-grade students agreed for all their children to be vaccinated.

On April 16, 200 students were vaccinated, he added.

Doctor Nguyễn Hữu Thịnh from Chợ Rẫy Hospital said that vaccines and all necessary conditions had been carefully prepared. The children would be injected with a 0.25ml dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Vice Chairman of the city People’s Committee Dương Anh Đức said that vaccination was necessary to ensure health of students, allowing them to attend class in-person. 

Vice Director of the city Health Department Nguyễn Hữu Hưng said that to prepare for the vaccination campaign, the city trained more than 7,500 medical workers and set up medical teams as well as medicine and equipment for emergency cases.

Under a plan adopted by the municipal People’s Committee earlier this month, HCM City is to inoculate 898,537 children aged from five to under 12 years old, and the inoculation is expected to be completed by September this year.

Việt Nam began the campaign to inoculate children from five to under 12 years old last Thursday with the vaccination of nearly 200 sixth-grade pupils in the northern Quảng Ninh Province with Moderna vaccines.

The shipment of the first batch of Moderna vaccines, sponsored by the Australian Government, arrived in Việt Nam on April 8.

Việt Nam has so far approved two vaccines for use on children aged five to 11, which are Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The recommended gap between doses is four weeks. For children, both doses must be of the same vaccine.

Around 11.8 million children in this age range are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. — VNS