HANOI: The Vietnamese province of Thanh Hoa has suspended the use of a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine batch after more than 120 students were hospitalised following their inoculation.
The central province started vaccinating children aged 15 to 17 years with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine since Nov 30.
According to a Vn Express news report, the provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC) said that as of Thursday, over 120 children were admitted to hospitals after showing symptoms like nausea, high fever or breathing difficulties,
Seventeen of them had severe reactions, but have been stabilised and are being monitored closely.
However, the cause of their symptoms is yet to be confirmed by Thanh Hoa authorities.
Local CDC director Luong Ngoc Truong said they have stopped using the current vaccine batch.
"We still have other batches, also Pfizer vaccines, so we will continue vaccinating the children," he said.
The suspended batch would be put into storage and could be used later for other groups like adults, Truong added.
Ha Trung District General Hospital director Vu Van Chinh said side-effects following vaccination was normal but were more likely to happen in children than adults.
The Thanh Hoa CDC has distributed around 117,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to 27 districts and towns. Over 56,700 doses have been administered.
Over the past week, three children have also died following their vaccination with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in Bac Giang, Hanoi and Binh Phuoc.
The Health Ministry has said the cause of the deaths was "overreaction to the vaccine," and not linked to the quality of the vaccine or the vaccination process."
Until now, 34 cities and provinces in Vietnam have vaccinated children 12-17 years old with more than 3.5 million doses.
Last week, four workers in Thanh Hoa's Kim Viet Shoe factory died following their Vero Cell Covid-19 vaccination, also due to "overreaction."
Meanwhile, Vietnam continue to record high number of cases with 13,677 new Covid-19 cases reported on Thursday.
This brings the number of infections in the fourth wave to 1,260,122.
The three localities with the highest numbers of infection were Ho Chi Minh City with 1,738 cases, Can Tho with 985 cases and Tay Ninh with 768 cases.
The total number of deaths so far is 25,658, accounting for around 2 per cent of all infections.
Vietnam has vaccinated over 72.4 million people with at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot, while around 52.7 million people have been fully vaccinated.