Vietnam started its vaccination programme for children aged five to 11 on Thursday, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The northern province of Quang Ninh is the first locality in the country to inoculate its children in this age group.

The first batch of vaccines administered to the children was Moderna vaccines, sponsored by the Australian government.

About 150 school pupils in this age group would be inoculated on Thursday, local media Tuoi Tre reported. It added that Quang Ninh has nearly 181,200 children aged five to 11.

“With the high vaccination rate among high-risk groups, Vietnam now can expand its vaccination programme for other groups, including children aged 5 to 11. This is one of the key tasks of the health sector in 2022,” the news agency cited Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son as saying.

Vietnam has about 11.8 million children in this age group, of whom about 8.2 million have never been infected with COVID-19, the newspaper said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the report, the ministry set the target to complete the vaccination campaign for children in this age group in the second quarter of this year.

According to the health ministry, nearly 77 million people have been vaccinated with at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, of which more than 8.4 million are in the 12-17 age group and the rest aged 18 and above. 

(Xinhua/NAN)