HCMC – The Ministry of Health this evening, April 16, confirmed 18,474 new daily Covid cases nationwide, down over 1,600 cases against the day earlier. This is the lowest daily case count since early February.
Hanoi City still recorded the highest number of new cases, at 1,361, followed by Phu Tho with 1,070, Bac Giang with 874 and Nghe An with 853. Quang Ninh had 824 cases and Yen Bai recorded 807 cases.
Other provinces had fewer than 700 cases each.
The health authority of Quang Ninh today registered to add 4,880 cases detected earlier to the national Covid monitoring system.
The new cases sent the country’s Covid tally to over 10.4 million, including over 8.9 million recoveries.
Today alone, 68,330 Covid patients were announced to have recovered from the disease.
Meanwhile, 10 Covid deaths were confirmed, the lowest daily number since July last year.
In related news, the Ministry of Health has amended regulations on the quarantine of direct contacts of Covid-19 cases. Accordingly, these people will not be quarantined, but they must limit contact with others within 10 days since the last contact with Covid cases.
They should limit their visits to public places, monitor their health and inform healthcare agencies if they develop Covid symptoms.
Earlier, direct contacts of Covid cases who have got two Covid vaccine shots or recovered from Covid will be brought under quarantine for five days, the period was seven days for those who have yet to be vaccinated.
Today, HCMC began administering the Moderna vaccine to all sixth graders in the city and fifth graders of five schools—Nguyen Binh Khiem in District 1, Bau Sen in District 5, Duong Minh Chau in District 10, Ho Van Hue in Phu Nhuan and Tan Son Nhi in Tan Phu.
Other children aged five to 11 in the city will be vaccinated from April 18.
HCMC is the second locality nationwide to administer Covid vaccines to this age group, following Quang Ninh which has vaccinated kids in this age group since April 14. Hanoi will begin its similar vaccination campaign tomorrow, April 17.
