Sharjah24 – Reuters: Vietnam aims to vaccinate all of its adult population with a coronavirus booster shot by the end of the first quarter of next year, the health ministry said on Friday.

The Southeast Asian country has seen a surge in daily infections since it lifted most of its movement restrictions in October, but has not reported any cases of the Omicron variant.

"The COVID-19 situation has been evolving in a complicated manner recently, with a rising trend in new infections," the ministry said in a statement.

The country reported 16,377 infections on Thursday, raising its overall caseload to 1.6 million, with 30,500 deaths.

More than 62% of its population of 98 million have received at least two vaccine shots.