Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCMC Department of Health, at a meeting with the HCMC Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control said the city would receive 56,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to be prioritized for 42,000 medical workers, 10,000 flight crew members and airport personnel.

"The health department has come up with a list of groups to be inoculated, ready to be deployed," said Binh, adding the vaccination round should complete before May 15, in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s timeline.

The 56,000 vaccine doses to be received by HCMC were produced by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca and provided through global vaccine access mechanism Covax. The upcoming vaccination round in HCMC would also provide second shots for those who have already been vaccinated in previous rounds.

As of Saturday, the city has vaccinated around 7,530 health workers. Around 1,000 police officers have also been vaccinated, said Binh.

Within this week, HCMC Center for Disease Control (CDC) would also receive an additional 1,600 Covid-19 vaccine doses from Vietnam Vaccine JSC, which ordered them from AstraZeneca, to inoculate hotel employees where entrants are being quarantined, he added.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee, said countries in close proximity to Vietnam, including Cambodia and Thailand, are all experiencing new Covid-19 waves with increasing daily cases. Therefore, HCMC must ramp up its Covid-19 prevention measures. No community transmissions have been recorded in the city in around two months.

"We must focus our resources into preventing illegal entrants. The risk of Covid-19 spread into HCMC from other countries is high," said Phong, adding localities must keep track of entrants and city police must cooperate with the military to ensure safety when receiving, transporting and quarantining illegal entrants.

HCMC has recorded 227 Covid-19 cases in total so far, with only 11 active cases left.

To date, Vietnam has vaccinated over 58,000 against Covid-19, mainly frontline workers in the coronavirus fight.