The latest move aims to speed up the vaccination process in a safe and effective way, creating herd immunity as soon as possible, according to the Hanoi Center for Disease Control that proposed the shortening.

A medical staff holds a vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Hanoi.

At the end of September, the Ministry of Health had allowed localities to decide to shorten the time between two AstraZeneca shots on their own while adhering to recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the manufacturer. HCMC reduced the gap to six weeks in September.

AstraZeneca is the first Covid-19 vaccine licensed and used in Vietnam. Currently, it is the main vaccine used for the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Vietnam.

The second shot should be given about 4-12 weeks after the first one, according to the manufacturer. The WHO recommends a time of 8-12 weeks between two doses.

In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health had instructed that the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine be administered 8-12 weeks after the first.

As of Sunday morning, Hanoi had administered 11.04 million vaccine doses for more than 6.11 million people, with 4.9 million fully vaccinated.

The Hanoi CDC has said that about 93 percent of residents 18 years and older have got the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but less than 70 percent of this age group have been fully vaccinated.

Tran Thi Nhi Ha, director of the municipal health department, said there were about a million people over 50 waiting to receive the second dose, starting November 15.

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Source: VnExpress