Towards pandemic normalization

Vietnam would gradually normalize Covid-19 and consider it an endemic disease, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

At a cabinet meeting last week, Chinh told the Ministry of Health to learn from other countries’ experiences to work out appropriate and effective solutions to consider Covid-19 as a common disease. He said it is necessary to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination, with the goals of completing the injection of the booster shot for people aged from 18 in the first quarter of 2022 and the second injection for those aged 12-17 in March, preparing a vaccination campaign for children from five to 11 years old, and studying the administration of the fourth shot for adults and injection for children under five years old.

According to the Ministry of Health, the country has brought the pandemic under control. The number of daily Covid infections is rising, but Covid fatalities are declining due to a high vaccination rate.

As of March 6, Vietnam had received 218 million doses of Covid vaccines, with nearly 198 million of them administered nationwide. Some 98% of the adult population have got at least two shots, while 37% have been given a booster shot. Some 99% of children aged between 12 and 17 have got one shot, while 94% of these children have got a second shot.

The ministry forecast that number of Covid infections would continue rising as the country will fully reopen tourism in mid-March.

To date, more than 4.4 million infections have been recorded, of whom 2.68 million have fully recovered and more than 40,700 have died.