Thai Binh (VNA) – The northern province of Thai Binh is focusing its efforts on implementing a COVID-19 vaccination campaign as part of the biggest-ever national vaccination campaign that was launched in July.

Vaccination, along with strict adherence to the “5K message” given by the Ministry of Health, which are khautrang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tutap (no gathering) and khai bao y te (health declaration), is defined as the solution that Vietnam is applying to reign in the pandemic.

Pham Nam Thai, Vice Director of the provincialHealth Department said that Thai Binh is conducting the first phase of thevaccination campaign, which concentrates on injecting COVID-19 vaccines toprioritised groups, including forces working at the frontline in the pandemic fight.

In this first phase, the locality has set up more than 70 vaccination stations in hospitals, medical stations atprovincial and district levels as well as private medical facilities. In each district, five medical stations with good infrastructure and personnel are selected to serve vaccination activities. At all vaccination stations, medical workers directly engaging in vaccination activities have been given training onthe work. Meanwhile, the provincial General Hospital and all hospitals atdistrict level have been requested to prepare necessary equipment and personnel in order to be ready togive first aids to people suffering severe reactions after injection.

As of September 14, Thai Binh had completedthree vaccination phases, during which more than 27,000 people were injected withfirst vaccine shots, and 24,000 others received full two shots.

Thai said that currently, Thai Binh has about1.4 million people aging from 18 years old subjected to COVID-19 vaccination.The provincial health sector has coordinated with other sectors as well ascities and districts to ensure suitable vaccination distribution. Basically,the vaccination campaign is on good progress, Thai added.

In order to ensure vaccination safety, allvaccination stations and people directly engaging in the activities have beenasked to strictly follow guidelines provided by the Ministry of Health. Emergencyteams have been formed in hospitals and medical centres to timely handle any arising incidents during thevaccination process at vaccination stations. Thai affirmedthat vaccination activities have been conducted safely in the province, whileall post-vaccination issues have been coped with in a timely manner.

Regarding Thai Binh’s vaccination plan to April next year, Thai said that the province has issued a plan to implement thecampaign with two major goals of ensuring that 90 percent of local residentsaging from 18 receive the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of2021, and more than 70 percent of the population are fully vaccinated againstthe pandemic by April 2022.

Under the plan, thevaccination will be conducted in different phases, with up to tens of thousands ofCOVID-19 vaccine shots administered each day during peak periods. In the first phase, staff members ofprovincial departments, sectors, agencies, associations and publicorganisations will be vaccinated against COVID-19, while the second phase willfocus on workers in local firms, industrial parks and industrial clusters. In enterpriseswith more than 200 workers, vaccination activities will be held right on site.

To date, Thai Binh hasset up more than 320 vaccination stations across the locality. All medical workers at the stations have been trained in line with guidance from the Ministryof Health. After completing vaccine injection for workers, Thai Binh willconcentrate on giving the vaccines to people with underlying diseases, theelderly, and workers in companies having less than 200 workers.

In order to ensure the highest efficiency of thecampaign, Thai underlined the significance of careful preparations and thestrengthening of the mass media’s efforts in popularising the benefits and roleof vaccination.

Besides, management agencies, theadministration, organisations and enterprises should make accurate list of people subjecting to COVID-19 vaccination, he said,adding that it is crucial to increase the application of information technologyin vaccination management./.