Yangon, Oct 11 (IANS): Myanmar will launch a Covid-19 vaccination programme for schoolchildren aged over 12 years next week, the state-run media reported on Sunday.

About 1 million students of middle and high school level who have enrolled for 2021-2022 academic year will be vaccinated, in an effort to cut the spread of Covid-19 infections, the report said.

According to a release from the Ministry of Health on Sunday, over 4.11 million people have been fully vaccinated nationwide, while over 5.78 million people have received the first jabs of Covid-19 vaccines as of Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 478,651 on Sunday after 1,318 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry's release said.

Thirty new deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 18,134 in the country as of Sunday, the release said.

According to the ministry's figures, a total of 431,275 patients have been discharged from hospitals and over 4.5 million samples have been tested for Covid-19 so far.