More than 17 million students in Vietnam are expected to return to school today for the first time in about a year, according to the country's Ministry of Health, as authorities announced plans to start vaccinating children from the age of five against COVID-19.
Vietnam lifted many of its restrictive measures in October to stem the new coronavirus pandemic, but almost all students have been taking online lessons since early last year.
Most schools in the country are expected to reopen by mid-February, according to the health ministry.
In a separate statement issued at the weekend, the government stated that it intends to purchase 21,9 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to 12 years.
More than 75% of Vietnam's 98 million people have received at least two doses of the new coronavirus vaccine, and authorities plan to give a booster dose to the entire adult population by the end of March.
Schools in the capital Hanoi will start reopening tomorrow, Tuesday, with precautionary measures, such as temperature control and protocols in place to detect positive cases, according to authorities.
Vietnam had managed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus for most of 2020 before the Delta variant strain led to an increase in cases last year.
The Ministry of Health also announced that 14.112 new cases were registered in the country yesterday, Sunday. In total, Vietnam has recorded 2,34 million new coronavirus cases and more than 38.300 deaths since COVID-19.
Source: RES-EAP