HCMC – The HCMC Department of Health has proposed the Ministry of Health shorten the interval between doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to six weeks.
According to the department, both the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health have recommended that the interval between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca should be eight to 12 weeks.
The proposal came as the city wants to accelerate vaccinations for those needing the second shot, the local media reported.
HCMC has administered some 200,000 vaccine doses per day over the past few days. The city set a target of giving the first dose to all residents aged from 18 and above by September 15.
The HCMC Department of Health made the proposal as the pandemic has shown little sign of abating in the city as the daily counts of Covid cases are still high. As of September 12, the city has detected more than 298,000 cases, including nearly 12,000 deaths.
The city now has more than 39,000 cases under treatment at hospitals, with over 2,900 of them children aged below 16.
As for the vaccination, the city has administered some 7.8 million doses to residents as of September 11, including nearly 6.5 million people getting the first dose and over 1.3 million others receiving two doses, accounting for 89.8% and 18.1% of the city’s adults.
A representative of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, under the Ministry of Health, today, September 13, said the shortening of the recommended interval between two AstraZeneca doses was possible.
Although the AstraZeneca vaccine producer had increased the interval from four to eight-12 weeks, some localities in Vietnam have administered the second shot four weeks after the first shot.
The Ministry of Health has yet to issue an official document on the interval shortening.
