VIENTIANE, Apr 19 (NNN-KPL) – The COVID-19 vaccination programme in Laos is underway and the majority of people in target areas have had their first doses of the vaccine.
The Lao government plans to vaccinate at least 150,000 people in the initial stages of the programme.
Local daily, Vientiane Times, today quoted Director General of the Department of Hygiene and Health Promotion, under the Lao Ministry of Health, Phonepaseuth Ounaphom, as saying that, the sectors involved had vaccinated 85 percent of the target population.
As of Apr 4, some 103,000 people in at-risk groups had received their first vaccination, while 6,171 people have had their second doses, according to the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.
The vaccination drive is part of COVID-19 prevention and control plans which health authorities are going all out to implement, in a bid to keep the virus in check. The vaccination programme has been expanded to cover more target groups in addition to health workers.
Civil servants and officials from ministries, ministry-equivalent organisations, local departments, foreign embassies, international organisations and their families, as well as, some businesses categorised as being at risk, are now targeted under the expanded programme.
An earlier report said that about 22 percent of the population, or about 1.6 million people, will be vaccinated in 2021.
Vaccination coverage is expected to rise to 70 percent of the population by 2022, with more people to be vaccinated in the following years.
Laos has now confirmed 58 cases of COVID-19, with nine people undergoing treatment in hospitals.– NNN-KPL
