The Ministry of Health has rolled out a COVID-19 vaccination plan for the 2021-2022 period with an overall goal of reaching herd immunity by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

The vaccination rate among people aged 18 and above is expected to increase to at least 50% this year and over 70% by the end of the first quarter of 2022, according to the plan.

The plan also specifies 16 priority groups for vaccination as follows:

1. Medical workers

2. Those who participate in COVID-19 prevention and control work (members of steering committees on COVID-19 prevention and control, staff working in quarantine camps, volunteers, reporters)

3. Military personnel

4. Police force

5. Vietnamese diplomats and their relatives; people working in diplomatic missions and international organizations in Viet Nam 

6. Customs and immigration officers

7. Those working to maintain the supply of essential services such as aviation, transportation, tourism, electricity and water supply

8. Teachers, students, young doctors, people working in agencies and administrative units, law, notaries and auctioneers organizations who frequently contact with many people

9. People with chronic diseases, people aged 65 

10. Residents in pandemic-hit areas

11. Poor people and social policy beneficiaries

12. People who are sent by a competent authority to study or work abroad or others who wish to go abroad to study or work, and foreign experts working in Viet Nam

13. Factory workers and their relatives 

14. Religious dignitaries

15. Freelance workers

16. Other subjects decided by the Minister of Health and Chairpersons of provincial/municipal People's Committees or proposed by vaccine donors.

The plan will be implemented nationwide from July 2021 to April 2022, with priority to be given to: 

- Pandemic-hit provinces and cities 

- Localities in key economic regions 

- Industrial and populous localities

- Border localities with international border gates.