Vietnam reports 5,490 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday (Oct 2) as total cases surpass 800,000

People wearing face masks exercise at a park after restrictions imposed for the past three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic were lifted, in Hanoi, Vietnam. - Reuters

HANOI, Oct 2 (Xinhua): Vietnam reported 5,490 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 5,477 locally transmitted and 13 imported, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

The new infections brought the country's total tally to 803,202, with 19,601 deaths, the ministry said.

Most of the community cases were detected in southern localities, including 2,723 in Ho Chi Minh City, 1,517 in Binh Duong province, and 509 in Dong Nai province.

As many as 664,938 Covid-19 patients have so far recovered, up 28,857 from Friday, while nearly 43.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered nationwide, according to the ministry.

As of Saturday, Vietnam has registered 798,626 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, the ministry said.

On the same issuee, an additional donation of 1,499,940 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has been delivered by the US to help Vietnam's pandemic response, the US Embassy announced on Saturday (Oct 2).

The vaccines were delivered through COVAX and arrived in Hàanoi late on Saturday night directly from the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

This delivery follows three previous donations totaling six million vaccine doses that the United States has provided to Vietnam through the COVAX Facility, including five million Moderna doses and one million Pfizer doses that arrived during US Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to the country.

“The United States and Vietnam continue to build on our longstanding cooperation with more than US$1 billion investment in Vietnam's health infrastructure to strengthen the country's capacity to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic,” an announcement from the US Embassy said.

“In addition to these donations of 7.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, the United States has committed more than US$26.7 million in virus related assistance to Vietnam since the start of the pandemic.”

As well as the 7.5 million vaccine doses the US donated through the COVAX Facility, Vietnam has received 4,176,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from the COVAX, not including other bilateral donations to the country sent through the facility. - Xinhua