Around 17,775 foreigners in HCM City were given their first Covid-19 vaccination jabs on August 5-6 with most of them living in District 7.
The majority of the foreigners are investors, experts and engineers and their relatives aged between 18 and 70. The vaccination was held in District 7’s three places Saigon South Marina Club on Tran Van Tra Street, South Korean International School and Phu My Hung Sale Gallery on Tan Phu Street, dtinews.vn citing a report from the TP.
According to the local authorities, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines were used for the injection.
Related: Foreigners in Vietnam can now register for COVID-19 vaccine online. Here’s how!
HCM City has set a target to vaccinate around 70% of the city population in the near future.
“I’m very happy with the inoculation, I would like to thanks to the Vietnamese people for this”, A South Korean engineer said after receiving his first Covid-19 vaccination jab.
The current speed of vaccination can see HCMC run out of the Covid-19 vaccine doses that the Ministry of Health has allocated to the city.
According to the HCMC Department of Health, the city vaccinated more than 262,000 people on Saturday. From July 22 to August 7, the city has administered vaccine doses to over 2.1 million people.
Also read: Vietnam breaks record for new daily cases as HCMC runs out of vaccines
The number of vaccine doses that the city has received from the Ministry of Health since July 22 is around 2.59 million. The health department says that at the current rapid vaccination rate, if more doses are not distributed in time, the city could run out by the end of Monday.
Vaccination in HCMC has been sped up since July 22. In addition to priority groups, the city has opened up access to everyone above 18, with support from private healthcare facilities. Some procedures have been shortened to speed up the process. The number of vaccination teams has been doubled to 1,200.
So far, HCMC has received the highest number of vaccine doses in the country at more than four million doses. The vaccination distribution rate on the city’s population is 21 percent, although only around 1 percent have been fully vaccinated, according to VNExpress.