A 14-year-old female student in Nhi Khe Commune in Ha Noi’s Thuong Tin District has died a day of getting vaccinated against COVID-19, the leader of the communal authority has confirmed.

Nine grade students at Nguyen Trai Secondary School in Ha Noi's Ha Dong District are given COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday. —VNA/VNS Photo Minh Quyet

She is the second student to die since Viet Nam started the COVID-19 inoculation drive for high school students.

Nguyen Viet Binh, chairman of the communal People’s Committee said the girl was vaccinated at 8.14am on Saturday.

Early the next morning she had a fever and was taken to Thường Tín General Hospital before being transferred to Bach Mai Hospital for treatment. She died at 10am on the same day.

Bình said the authorities are conducting an investigation to determine the exact cause of death.

Leaders of the People's Committee of Thuong Tin District visited the student's family and offered their condolences.

The National Expanded Immunization Office said a meeting will be held with the medical professional council to further investigate her death.

The city would continue the vaccination drive for students as planned.

On Sunday, a male student from northern Bac Giang Province died after receiving COVID-19 vaccination.

The student suffered serious anaphylactic shock shortly after being vaccinated. He was transported to Bach Mai Hospital in Ha Nội for emergency treatment and died five days later.

Hà Nội started the COVID-19 inoculation drive for high school students on November 23, using Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The city initiated the vaccine rollout for ninth grader on November 27.

In the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, the city aim to administer COVID-19 vaccines to all children aged between 12-17.

791,921 children are expected to be vaccinated, including 519,547 children aged between 12-16 years old and 272,374 children aged 16-18 years old.

As of Saturday, 36 localities out of 63 in the country, including Ha Noi, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Lai Chau, Lang Son, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Quang Binh, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, HCM City, Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu, Đồng Nai, Tiền Giang, Long An, Lâm Đồng, Tây Ninh, Sóc Trăng, An Giang, Vinh Long, Dong Thap, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu và Hau Giang, have started vaccinating children aged between 12 - 17.

The localities would gradually lower the age of children being vaccinated. Currently, many localities have vaccinated children in grades eight and nine.

By Saturday, 3,427,977 doses of the vaccine have been injected for this age group, including 2,892,168 doses of the first dose and 535,809 doses of the second dose.

The coverage rate of first dose is 31.7 per cent and that for second dose is 5.9 per cent of this group’s population.

Khong Minh Tuan, deputy director of the Ha Noi Centre for Disease Control said that COVID-19 Pfizer (Comirnaty) vaccine was used to children. Families, parents and caregivers needed to closely monitor children’s health after vaccination. '

Source: VNS