As of October 19, a total of more than 16 million COVID-19 vaccines have been vaccinated in Myanmar, according to the Ministry of Health.

As of October 19, there were 4,984,335 (4.98 million) people who had received two doses of the vaccine, and 7,018,865 people (7.01 million) who had received one dose, over 16 million jabs in total, according to the ministry.

According to the ministry, 24 million Sinopharm vaccines have been purchased from China and 12 million people with the ages between 40 and 64 will receive the vaccine this year.

The COVID-19 vaccination is started in Myanmar since January 2021.

Sinopharm and Sinovac, the COVID-19 vaccines from China, are vaccines which are recognized by the WHO for emergency use that can be given indefinitely for those over 18 years of age, according to the WHO guidelines.

The ministry said it was also working to increase the number of vaccines available and to coordinate the purchase of vaccines.

In addition, the target groups are expanded and being vaccinated for the first time with the COVID-19 vaccine since September 14.

The people involved in the new target groups are people aged 55 years and above, people with disabilities, members and family members of ethnic armed groups, people from migrant groups and temporary camps and people with chronic and non-communicable diseases.

The ministry urged people should receive the full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and those who have received the first dose to visit the nearest immunization regimen on or near the scheduled date for the second immunization and actively participate in the immunization and immunization program.