HANOI (BLOOMBERG) - Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed local officials to accelerate Covid-19 shots in order to fully vaccinate all adults aged 18 years and older this year, surpassing the nation's inoculation target, the Cabinet's news portal reported.

The nation will have enough vaccine doses this month to administer two shots to its entire adult population against the virus by the end of the year, according to the report, which also cited Deputy Premier Vu Duc Dam.

Vietnam had targeted fully vaccinating at least half of people aged 18 and older by the end of December and 70 per cent of its entire population by the end of March next year.

The planning ministry this month proposed increasing that target to 80 per cent of the population during the same period.

The premier, whom with his deputy spoke to the nation's anti-Covid 19 task force over the weekend, also ordered the quickening of vaccinations for children and to prepare booster shots to those already vaccinated, according to the report.

The government had administered nearly 108 million vaccine doses as of Saturday, according to the health ministry.

As of last Friday, 53.4 per cent of adults in Vietnam were fully vaccinated, the government website reported, citing information from the same meeting.

Local virus cases in November have risen 2.9 per cent from October, though fatalities have dropped 46.3 per cent and hospitalisations are down 25.3 per cent.