Myanmar targets six million teens in latest Covid-19 vaccine push: health official

By DMG 29 Sep 2021

DMG Newsroom
29 September 2021, Yangon 

Myanmar plans to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to six million people ages 13 to 17 years old, Dr. Khin Khin Gyi, director of the Public Health Awareness division of the Department of Public Health, wrote on social media. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of Arakan State’s Department of Public Health, told DMG that the government is arranging to vaccinate people between 13 and 18 years old in Arakan State. 

“The state has arranged to vaccinate children above 13 years old. I do not know when it will start. More vaccines will arrive in Arakan State every month,” Dr. Soe Win Paing said. 

About 300,000 of 1.6 million people in Arakan State have been administered the vaccine to date, and the remaining unvaccinated will be inoculated depending on the allocation of the vaccine, he said. 

The daily Covid caseload in Arakan State townships is decreasing and the number of coronavirus patients who are being provided medical treatment is also down, according to figures from the state’s regime council. 

The vaccine protects against Covid-19 infection at a 70-90% range, and symptoms are far less likely to be serious for someone who has been vaccinated, Dr. Khin Khin Gyi has emphasised.  

During the first and second waves of Covid-19, 37 deaths were reported in Arakan State, but the death toll during the third wave had risen to 468 as of September 28, figures from the state’s regime council show. 

A total of 4,844 cases were reported throughout Arakan State as of Tuesday, and 4,252 of them were discharged from hospitals, according to that data.