According to medical experts at a central-level facility of Vietnam, individuals who have delayed their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine will not have to repeat their vaccine schedule. 

Speaking to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Dr. Dinh Van Thoi from the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute recommended that residents get their second dosage of COVID-19 vaccine in time for the appointment and should not delay it for too long. 

For example, the interval between the two doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine should be one month. 

However, the jabs will still prove effective if that time gap is slightly stretched.

According to a guiding document from the Ministry of Health, most of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines require two shots, the gap between which has been prescribed by respective manufacturers. 

Nevertheless, people who have missed their second session can still take the jab and complete their vaccination schedule without having to retake the first dose.

In case of a vaccine shortage, people who have taken their first shot of AstraZeneca can receive the Pfizer-BioNTech as the follow-up after eight to 12 weeks, provided they offer their consent.

Meanwhile, those who have received the vaccines manufactured by Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, or Moderna can only take a follow-up jab of the same kind.

More specifically, it is recommended that a second dose of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V be given to a patient three weeks after the first dose. 

For those who receive two AstraZeneca doses, the jabs should be given eight to 12 weeks apart and at least 14 days away from an inoculation for other diseases.

The gap for two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should be three weeks, while China’s Vero Cell jabs require 3-4 weeks and Moderna inoculations need 28 days. 

Vietnam administered more than 599,941 COVID-19 vaccine doses to its people on Monday, one of the most vaccinated days since the country began its vaccination campaign in March.

The new inoculations raised the total number of vaccinated people in Vietnam to nearly 10 million, with approximately one million of them receiving two full doses, the Ministry of Health reported.

Vietnam has so far recorded 224,894 infections, including 75,920 recoveries and 3,757 deaths.

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