Check-up before vaccination (Photo: VNA)

Quang Ninh (VNA) – Over 70 percent of workers in industrial parks (IPs) in the northernprovince of Quang Ninh have been vaccinated against COVID-19, said the managementboard of the provincial IPs.

Within more than aweek as of July 18, over 21,700 workers in IPs received the first shots.

Quang Ninh is now hometo five IPs with around 30,500 workers.

In the fifthvaccination roll-out, the province gave priority to workers in Hai Ha SeaportIP in Hai Ha district, Hai Yen IP in Mong Cai city, Dong Mai IP in Quang Yentown and Viet Hung IP in Ha Long city.

One of the vaccinetypes given to workers in IPs, especially in Hai Yen and Hai Ha Seaport IPs, isSinopharm as suggested by the Chinese Government and instructed by the HealthMinistry.

In order to ensureproduction safety at IPs and economic zones, the provincial Steering Committee for COVID-19Prevention and Control asked heads of the management board of the provincial IPs. and production facilities toraise the sense of responsibility for health management and ensuring the safetyof workers and employees, mostly in Mong Cai, Ha Long, Quang Yen, Uong Bi andDong Trieu. IPs and industrial clusters must conduct comprehensive and periodic testing in a close-ended process, targeting 20 percent of workers per week.

The provinceconsistently followed the principles of preventing, discovering, tracing, quarantining, zoning off and eliminating infections, quickly stabilising the situation.

Thanks to efforts toachieve the dual goal of fighting the pandemic and restoring socio-economicdevelopment, Quang Ninh drew over 22.4 trillion VND in investment in IPs and EZs in the firsthalf.

During the period, QuangNinh’s economy grew by 8.02 percent, ranking fourth among cities and provincesin the Red River Delta. Its manufacturing and processing sector expanded by38.95 percent year-on-year, or 17.6 percent higher than the target, offsettingcontraction in services, especially tourism caused by the pandemic, as well as coaland electricity sectors.

The province is also striving to givevaccination to 70-80 percent of local residents by April 2022 in order to reachherd immunity against COVID-19.

According to head of the provincial HealthDepartment Nguyen Trong Dien, to this end, the locality is speeding up COVID-19vaccination campaign.

Recently, the province has administered tens ofthousands of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine doses to workers in Chinese-investedfirms in Quang Ninh and border residents, he said.

Meanwhile, Hoang Ba Nam, Secretary of the PartyCommittee of Mong Cai city, said that the city has received 31,000 doses ofSinopharm COVID-19 vaccine. With a capacity of injecting 4,000-5,000 doses perday, Mong Cai plans to finish the administration of 31,000 doses by July 20.

So far, Quang Ninh has received about 260,000COVID-19 vaccine doses of different kinds, with 60,000 doses administered. Theprovince expects to inject the rest in July and August while waiting for morevaccine delivery.

The province hopes to become one of the firstlocalities in Vietnam to reach herd immunity. It is planning to build avaccination database and start the use of vaccine passport. The locality hasalso allocated personnel to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to locals in ethnic minority-inhabited,mountainous, islands and hard-to-reach areas.

COVID-19 vaccination is viewed among important and necessarysolutions to create a safe environment serving local economic development,especially the border economy, said Vice Chairw🎃oman of the Mong Cai city 💙People’sCommittee Nguyen Thu Huong.