Amidst the rapidly increasing number of new cases of Covid-19, the Health Ministry has urged continued efforts to accelerate vaccination against Covid-19.
Chief Representative of the World Health Organisation in Vietnam Dr. Angela Pratt yesterday warned that the fight against Covid-19 is not over yet as many people are getting infected, hospitalised, and dead in many countries around the world.
Cases of Covid-19 are surging again in provinces and cities nationwide, due to the rise of Omicron sub-variants, including BA.4, BA.5, BA.2.75, BA.2.12.1.
Mr. Nguyen Ba Hung, Deputy Director of the Health Data Center, Information Technology Department under the Ministry of Health, on May 26, said that, so far, more than 25 million people across the country had had vaccine passports. However, through actual inspection in some localities, after more than a month, the cleaning of vaccination data and verification of the vaccine passport are implemented slowly, not ensuring the progress.
On the evening of May 2, the country recorded 3,123 new cases of Covid-19 infections, including one from a foreign country and 3,122 domestically-transmitted cases, down 595 cases compared to the previous day in 53 provinces and cities. At the same time, additional 1,090 people recovered from Covid-19 disease and two deaths were reported.
The Ministry of Health on April 15 issued new definitions of Covid-19 cases (F0), suspected cases, and close contacts (F1) for the diagnosis and treatment.
Many enterprises now believe that F0s and F1s can go to work to help employees feel comfortable and help enterprises have enough workers to maintain production and business activities. The fact that F0s and F1s keep working is also appropriate in the context of fully reopening from March 15 and heading to consider Covid-19 as an endemic disease.
In recent days, the Central provinces have continuously recorded a high number of Covid-19 cases in the community, with more than 1,000 community transmissions per day in some provinces. Therefore, the demand for rapid testing has surged drastically, leading to a scarcity of rapid test kits in some localities, such as Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Binh Dinh provinces, or even out of stock in some places.
It was recorded that from February 10 to 17, out of 92 samples sent to the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, 70 had positive PCR results with the Omicron variant, accounting for 76 percent.
The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), on February 20, informed that it had just detected a new cluster of Covid-19 cases at a monastery in Go Vap District. The health sector quickly implemented infection control measures, notifying students for epidemiological investigation and testing.
After the Government and the Prime Minister approved HCMC’s pilot plan on receiving international vaccinated visitors to the city, the municipal Department of Tourism has submitted a plan to receive foreign travelers in two phases to the city’s authorities, said Head of the Travel Division under the HCMC Department of Tourism Nguyen Viet Anh at the HCMC Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control’s conference on February 17.
On the evening of February 5, the Ministry of Health said that Ho Chi Minh City, Covid-19 hotspot in the fourth wave of coronavirus pandemic, reported 24 Covid-19 cases while Hanoi added 2,778 Covid-19 cases.
The 2022 Lunar New Year holiday is the second consecutive week that all 21 districts and Thu Duc City maintain the Covid-19-free status. There are no districts at pandemic alert level 2 – the yellow zone. This is also the second consecutive week that the number of new Covid-19 cases has been reduced to less than 1,000 per week.
2021 is a pivotal year for F0s in many aspects: F0 as in Covid-19 F0 cases and F0 as in new investors in securities. First of all, 2021 is the year that some people jokingly call the second Covid year. Vietnam succeeded in controlling the pandemic in 2020.
For the second week in a row, Ho Chi Minh City has maintained the pandemic alert level 1, or green zone. There are no districts, wards, communes, and towns in HCMC at the pandemic alert level 3. The number of new cases continues to decrease compared to the previous weeks.
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, at noon on December 25, announced the pandemic alert level in the area following Resolution No.128 of the Government. Accordingly, the Covid-19 pandemic level in the city continues to remain at level 2 - the medium risk level or the yellow zone.
The HCMC’s health sector has preparedness and response plans for new Covid-19 cases increased significantly in recent days, and built scenarios of having tens of thousands of people infected with the virus.
Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen had a surprise inspection on Covid-19 prevention in Hoc Mon District because the pandemic had shown signs of being complicated again here.