Ministry of Health of Vietnam requests local authorities to implement expanded immunization program

Ministry of Health of Vietnam requests local authorities to implement expanded immunization program

The Ministry of Health of Vietnam requests the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-administered cities to direct relevant units to implement the following immunization activities:

- Regarding Budget Allocation

Starting in 2024, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam will purchase vaccines for the subjects within the Expanded Immunization Program and allocate them to the provinces and cities based on their needs.

According to Clause 4, Article 1 of Decree 13/2024/ND-CP, the provincial People's Committee is responsible for ensuring local resources and budget for the activities of the Expanded Immunization Program, epidemic immunization on its locality, except for activities that are already covered by the central budget as per regulations.

Therefore, the provincial and city Departments of Health need to develop an implementation plan for the activities of the Expanded Immunization Program at the local level. They must report to the provincial People's Committee to allocate sufficient funds for the program's activities, except for activities already covered by the central budget as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 1 of Decree 13/2024/ND-CP.

- Regarding Vaccine Demand Determination:

Clause 2, Article 1 of Decree 13/2024/ND-CP stipulates that the Department of Health is responsible for aggregating, submitting to the provincial People’s Committee for approval, and sending the demand to the Ministry of Health of Vietnam by June 30 annually. This is to develop a plan for vaccine supply, utilization, and immunization for the annual immunization activities.

For the vaccine demand in 2024, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam (National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology) has aggregated the demands from the provinces and cities, including the demand for catch-up doses for the Expanded Immunization Program targets in 2023, and the demand for 2024 and the first half of 2025, as stipulated in Decree 104/2016/ND-CP dated July 1, 2016 (prior to the promulgation of Decree 13/2024/ND-CP on February 5, 2024).

For the vaccine demand in 2025 and subsequent years, the Departments of Health of the provinces and cities are responsible for aggregating, submitting to the provincial People’s Committee for approval, and sending to the Ministry of Health of Vietnam (General Department of Preventive Medicine) by June 30, 2024 (for the 2025 demand) and by June 30 of the preceding year for subsequent years.

More details can be found in Official Dispatch 2462/BYT-DP issued on May 10, 2024.

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