COVID-19 vaccines without forgetting ‘5K’ message

This is the beginning of Vietnam's largest national-scale immunization campaign ever, to help prevent and fight the Covid-19 pandemic, thereby protecting and improving people's health across the country.

Like many countries around the world, anti-epidemic frontline health-care workers are the ones who will receive the first shots. Accordingly, people directly involved in the reception, care and treatment of Covid-19 patients, or who are exposed to sources of risk of infection will be injected during this phase.

On the first day, 377 medical workers from the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases Base 2, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases of Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Duong City Medical Centreand Kim Thanh District Medical Centre (Hai Duong province) were vaccinated, with 100% of those vaccinated reporting no post-vaccination response. On March 9, the Covid-19 vaccine continued to be administered to health workers in Hanoi and Gia Lai. The vaccinations will help physicians at the front lines be more confident and dedicate their mind and enthusiasm to the fight against Covid-19.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread globally, seriously affecting mankind. Preventing the pandemic and bringing life back to normal is an urgent need of each country and the international community. A vaccination against Covid-19 is an important, effective, proactive and indispensable measure in this process.

According to the plan, the Ministry of Health has allocated the vaccine to 13 provinces and cities where epidemic hotspots have arisen and 21 COVID-19 treatment hospitals; at the same time priority order has been arranged according to Government's Resolution 21 / NQ-CP. The Ministry of Health will transfer vaccines to localities. Localities will receive it according to the process, then deploy it according to the approved local plan.

In order to ensure the safety of people vaccinated against Covid-19, localities need to follow the principle of “Four on-the-spot motto”, be ready with means of prevention, shock prevention and timely treatment.

It is necessary to strictly implement equality in vaccine access, according to Government Resolution 21 / NQ-CP. The Ministry of Health needs to organise teams to inspect, supervise and support localities in implementing safe vaccination campaigns.

In fact, in COVID-19 prevention and control work, the vaccine is an essential, proactive and most effective tool to prevent the spread of the epidemic. But no vaccines have the effect of preventing diseases at the rate of 100% nor provide 100% safety. Meanwhile, these Covid-19 vaccines have been developed in the fastest time possible, so more in-depth studies and evaluation are still needed.

Therefore, in addition to vaccination, the relevant forces and people need to continue to maintain the epidemic response strategy as developed by specialized agencies. That is early detection, zoning and timely handling.

At the recent meetings of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and specialized agencies all emphasised that anti-epidemic forces and people are not to become lax now that vaccines are available. It is still necessary to maintain the tried and tested strategy and accelerate the vaccination progress to increase immunity in the community as soon as possible.

Although the situation is under good control, the risk of further Covid-19 outbreaks is still very high, so the '5K' message (in Vietnamese): Khau trang (facemask) – Khu khuan (disinfection) – Khoang cach (distance) – Khong tu tap (no gathering) – Khai bao y te (health declaration) is still valid, along with all other anti-epidemic measures under the guidance of the Ministry of Health.