HANOI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Around 600,000 Vietnamese health workers and others who work on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 will be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccination in Vietnam, the country's Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

According to a plan announced by the ministry on the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines provided by the World Health Organization-led mechanism COVAX, the 11 priority groups also include customs personnel, teachers, people aged over 65, adults with chronic diseases and others. The plan aims to immunize 95 percent of the groups against the virus by the end of 2022.

Specifically, a total of 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be administered to the groups within the first quarter of this year, while around 3.6 million vaccine doses will be injected into 1.8 million people in the second quarter.

In the second half of the year, over 16 million people are expected to be vaccinated, according to the plan.

Vietnam previously managed to secure 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX and the British company AstraZeneca. It is also stepping up negotiations with other countries to ensure around 150 million vaccine doses for 70 percent of the country's population within this year, according to the ministry.

Vietnam currently has four domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development, of which two have entered clinical trials.

As of Tuesday morning, the country has recorded a total of 2,395 cases of COVID-19 infection, according to its Ministry of Health. Enditem

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