HANOI, Jan. 1 (Vietnam News/ANN): Vietnam reported 14,835 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, including 14,822 locally transmitted and 13 imported, according to its Ministry of Health.
The Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the locality with the highest number of infections with 1,748 more cases, followed by southern Vinh Long province with 1,223 cases and southern Tay Ninh province with 947 cases.
The infections brought the country's total tally of confirmed cases to 1,746,092 with 32,610 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, as many as 1,358,276 Covid-19 patients have so far recovered, up 2,990 from Friday (Dec 31).
Some 152.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including 68.8 million second shots and 5.7 million third shots, have been administered, according to the ministry.
Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication and infectivity.
As of Saturday (Jan 1), the country has registered over 1.7 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, the ministry said.
Five people arriving in HCM City from abroad have tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus, local health authorities have said.
They were all immediately quarantined upon entering Vietnam between December 20-25 and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, according to the city’s Centre for Disease Control.
Their specimens were sent to the Pasteur Institute for genomic sequencing and the institute reported on December 31 that the specimens were positive for the Omicron variant.
They are now in stable health condition, and their tests results turned negative after 5-7 days.
All 305 passengers travelling on flights with these Omicron cases have been quarantined in line with Ministry of Health regulations, and have tested negative for the virus.
From January 1, 2022, the city's health sector will coordinate with the immigration management agency at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport to conduct quick tests for all arrivals entering the country from abroad.
Medical workers were expected to take samples from more than 250 people for testing on January 1. - Vietnam News/ANN
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