Hanoi (VNA) - A steering committee for COVID-19 vaccination safety debuted at a video conference in Hanoi on April 28 that was connected to 63 cities and provincesnationwide.

The committee isheaded by Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Truong Son, Deputy Minister of Health.

Minister ofHealth Nguyen Thanh Long issued Decision No 1888/QĐ-BYT on April 15 establishingthe steering committee, which comprises senior officials from the ministry andleaders from its departments along with leading local experts and scientists indiverse fields, from immunisation, infection, emergency resuscitation and intensivecare to haematology, cardiology and neurology.

The committee istasked with guiding medical establishments on screening, monitoring, andhandling any adverse events following COVID-19 vaccinations and promptly assistinglocalities in dealing with all situations safely.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Medical Examination and TreatmentDepartment at the MoH and deputy head of the committee, a vaccination safetysystem has been set up nationwide.

Committeemembers work online and stand ready to reply to any concerns regarding the vaccinationof health workers, the official said.

According to areport from the National Expanded Programme on Immunisation, released on April27, a record 50,104 people were inoculated on April 26.

Nearly 260,000people - mostly frontline workers and medical staff - in 42 cities and provinceshave been injected with the AstraZeneca vaccine since the nationalvaccination drive began on March 8.

No incidents of rareblood clots have been reported so far, while typical reactions (tiredness, mildfever, muscle pains, etc.) were reported in about 30 percent of people - evenlower than the advisory information from the manufacturer and reports from Europeanauthorities.

Vietnam currentlyhas nearly 1 million doses of AstraZeneca from the manufacturer and also from theCOVAX Facility, along with 1,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, a giftfrom Russia./