HCMC – The Ministry of Health this evening, August 27, reported 12,920 new Covid-19 cases, while Binh Duong updated 4,508 cases detected earlier onto the national Covid-19 monitoring system, sending the country’s Covid-19 caseload in the current wave, which began on April 27, to 406,233. There were 19 imported cases in the day’s number.
Among the 12,901 locally-infected cases reported in 42 localities, HCMC recorded the biggest number, at 5,383, up 1,449 cases against yesterday, taking the city’s Covid-19 count to 199,483 in the current fourth Covid-19 wave.
The city was followed by Binh Duong with 4,187 new cases, down 681 cases, and Dong Nai with 996 cases. In addition, 454 other cases were reported in Long An, 312 in Tien Giang, 202 in Danang, 132 in Tay Ninh, 131 in Khanh Hoa, 125 in Quang Binh and 122 in Dong Thap.
The remaining cases were found in other localities, with each reporting less than 100 cases.
Today, 6,627 cases were found being infectious while in the community.
Up to now, 198,614 Covid-19 patients in the country have made a full recovery, including 10,126 people discharged from hospital today.
The subcommittee of treatment under the national anti-virus steering committee today reported an additional 356 Covid-19 deaths, with HCMC reporting the highest, at 287 fatalities. Moreover, 34 deaths were reported in Binh Duong, 13 in Dong Nai, 10 in Khanh Hoa, seven in Long An, two in Danang and one each in Ben Tre, Soc Trang and Thanh Hoa.
In addition, the subcommittee updated 30 Covid-19 fatalities recorded in Phu Yen Province from August 1 to 27, taking the day’s death count to 386.
The country’s total Covid-19 deaths have reached 10,053, accounting for 2.47% of the country’s total Covid-19 cases and 0.3 percentage points higher than the world’s average rate.
At a press briefing this afternoon, Pham Duc Hai, deputy head of the municipal steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control, said the city had employed stricter anti-pandemic measures for four days and the volume of vehicles traveling on the street has plunged 90% compared with normal days.
However, the city detected 2,400 cases going out without a legitimate reason over the past four days and fined them a total VND3 billion.
Today, the HCMC Department of Health distributed 16,000 doses of the Molnupiravir Covid-19 antiviral to Thu Duc City and other districts.
The antiviral will be used for mild and moderate Covid-19 patients who are being treated at home.
The antiviral is enough for 16,000 Covid-19 cases, while the city has over 52,000 Covid-19 patients staying at their homes, including more than 27,600 patients staying at home since being found infectious and nearly 24,500 others who have been discharged from hospital for home treatment.
The HCMC Department of Health required medical centers of districts to provide the antiviral to such patients and banned the trade of the antiviral.
On August 26, the government of HCMC’s Binh Thanh District evacuated some 2,000 residents in makeshift boarding houses exposed to high risks to other safer facilities to reduce the virus transmission.
They would be provided with food and cash and vaccinated against Covid-19.