Despite a new peak in COVID-19 infections, the high vaccination rate has enabled factories to continue producing, reversing last year’s policy of lockdowns, reports World Footwear

Hanoi

According to Reuters, the Vietnamese government has ensured that unlike nine months ago, when the Delta variant was spreading through a mostly unvaccinated population, factory workers are now fully vaccinated, which, in turn, has been proving that the Omicron variant is less severe. Despite reporting achieving new peaks of the infection rate (this past weekend, the country recorded 32 613 new infections per day), it is not expected to see factories shutting down production.

“The risk of widespread lockdowns is very low this year, as Vietnam has successfully carried out its COVID-19 vaccination campaign”, said Dang Duc Anh, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, to Reuters. More than 76% of the population has received at least two vaccine doses.

The news came as a relief for Western retailers, who have chosen Vietnam as their supply hub. The normalcy of operations in factories will, thus, help to free supply chain bottlenecks, which are contributing to pushing up inflation around the world. In addition, Vietnam has recently removed restrictions on international passenger flights.