A child in Hanoi is vaccinated against COVID-19 (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi – One week after the start of a campaign to vaccinate children from 5 to under-12 against COVID-19, a total 88,820 children in the age group had received the first shot as of April 20.

The Health Ministry has allocated over 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for children to localities.

The northern province of Quang Ninh was the first locality in the country to inoculate children in the age group on April 14.

In the capital city of Hanoi, a total 33,382 doses have been administered to children in the target age group since April 16, with no cases of serious reactions reported so far.

With more than 1 million children in the age group, Hanoi aims to have at least 95 percent of them fully vaccinated.

The southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City is carrying out the vaccination campaign for 898,538 children from 5 to under-12 in the city from April 16 to 30.

In a recent online survey conducted by the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) with the participation of 415,000 parents of children from 5 to under-15, 60.6 percent of the parents supported the vaccination of children, 7.6 percent said they would let their children get vaccinated if it is a requirement. Meanwhile, 29.1 percent said they are still considering the matter, and only 1.9 percent did not agree to let their children get vaccinated.

According to the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Health Ministry, there are approximately 11.8 million children from 5 to under-12 years old eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. Of them, about 8.2 million have not caught COVID-19. The health sector aims to provide full two shots to eligible children by the end of the second quarter.