A student in HCM City gets vaccinated against COVID-19 - Photo tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY – HCM City is urging districts with low COVID-19 vaccination rates for children to speed up their inoculation efforts to protect kids from the disease before the new school year in September.

Many children aged five to 17 in HCM City have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since August 1, when the city started to focus its vaccination effort on children.

Nearly 15,000 children get vaccine shots every day. Bình Chánh District is seeing the highest number of vaccinated children per day, with one day reaching nearly 2,000.

However, several districts have been criticised for their slow vaccination rate, including Nhà Bè, Phú Nhuận and District 4 (fewer than 100 per day), as well as Tân Bình and District 5 (fewer than 200 per day).

HCM City’s Department of Health requested that the epidemic prevention and control steering committees of local districts, especially the five above districts, should focus more on their vaccination effort for children since the daily COVID-19 cases are picking up.

The city has recorded more than 100 new cases daily in the past few weeks, up from around 50 more than a month ago.

Children can get their jabs at schools or other community vaccination sites.

Getting booster shots restores immunity against the disease, as vaccines gradually wear off over time, especially in high risk groups such as children, the elderly and people with underlying conditions, according to the department. – VNS