Hanoi (VNA) ꦛ– A total of 522 frontline medical workers and members of community-based anti-COVID-19 groups in Vietnam had been injected with COVID-19 vaccine during the first two days of the vaccination campaign that started on March 8.

According to the National Expanded Immunisation Programme, 107 people received the shots at the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases and 36 at Thanh Nhan Hospital in Hanoi. The Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases gave the injections to 104 people, and the COVID-19 Treatment Hospital in the central highlands province of Gia Lai - 69. Two medical centres in the northern province of Hai Duong – the country’s biggest pandemic hotspot at present – administered the vaccine to 206 people. Initial reports unveiled that most of the vaccinated people displayed normal symptoms already predicted like muscle pain, fatigue, fever, headache, chill, pain at the injection spot and nausea. There were five cases with more serious reactions, who were treated at hospital and all of them are now in stable conditions. Vietnam launched its COVID-19 inoculation drive on March 8 morning, administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to medical workers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and northern Hai Duong province. The Ministry of Health has allocated the vaccine to 13 localities, along with the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Public Security and 21 hospitals during the first phase. At a meeting on March 6, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long stressed the need to ensure equality in vaccine access as suggested by the WHO, UNICEF and COVAC. Vietnam will receive 5,657,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine in March and April, all made by AstraZeneca, the National Expanded Immunisation Programme said.  Of the amount, 4,177,000 doses will be supplied by COVAX Facility via the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with 1,373,800 doses to arrive on March 25 and another 2,803,200 doses in April. Meanwhile, 1.48 million doses bought by the Health Ministry via Vietnam Vaccine SJC (VNVC) will also be delivered in April.  Vietnam received the first batch of 117,600 doses of COVID-19 on February 24. The country plans to import about 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines./.