Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh says the Government of Laos hopes to vaccinate 70 percent of the adult population by the end of this year.
Speaking at the Second Ordinary Session of the National Assembly on Friday, he said that millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in Laos in the near future, Vientiane Times reports.
Prime Minister Phankham was quoted by Vientiane Times as saying that the official target of vaccinating 50 percent of adults has already been met, with the government now striving to reach 70 percent by the end of 2021.
Vietnam has promised to donate 600,000 more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and china has pledged another 2.5 million doses, while Australia promised one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in May this year.
Laos has recorded over 47,000 cases of Covid-19 and nearly 90 deaths and its economy has been hit hard by the effects of the pandemic.
Nearly 500,000 people are unemployed across the country, while the national currency is spiraling downward, causing the cost of living to increase and some commodities, such as fuels, to run out.
To try to revive the economy, Prime Minister Phankham has ordered full-scale preparations for reopening the country amid the launch of the historic Laos-China Railway.
“Despite advanced research and technology, no country in the world has been truly free of Covid-19 over the past two years. People cannot remain locked at home forever without earning a living, and therefore we must learn to live with this disease,” said PM Phankham while addressing the National Assembly.
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