The move was made as the country reported a surge in new infections and fatalities over the past days while many older adults remains unvaccinated.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu also asked the Ministry of Health to promptly start administering booster shots.

All local authorities must monitor health of all people infected with COVID-19 and make sure that COVID-19 patients could maintain contacts with healthcare facilities.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health drew a plan to give booster shots to adults, giving priority to health workers, those above 50, from December this year.

Additional shots could either be the same vaccine they received during the normal course or one from vaccines that utilize mRNA technologies, like Pfizer or Moderna.

As of 7:00 pm on Thursday, Viet Nam’s COVID-19 patient tally reached 1,266,288, including 1,005,310 recoveries and 25,658 fatalities.

The nation has administered 25,164,684 COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 52,736,988 people having been fully vaccinated./.