HCMC – The Ministry of Health today, October 9 reported 4,513 fresh Covid cases, marking the fifth straight day that the country’s daily Covid caseload stayed below 5,000.
All but one new infections are domestic cases found in 40 cities and provinces, down 261 cases over yesterday.
HCMC recorded 1,662 new cases, down 553 day-on-day, taking the city’s Covid count in the current fourth wave of the pandemic to 409,061.
Binh Duong Province came second with 830 infections, followed by Dong Nai with 575, An Giang with 308, Soc Trang with 192, Binh Thuan with 122 and Kien Giang with 113. Other localities confirmed fewer than 100 cases each.
The country’s total number of cases is now at 836,134, with 831,523 being domestic infections recorded in the ongoing fourth wave. Over 760,800 Covid patients have made a full recovery.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 fatalities continued the downtrend, with 105 confirmed today, raising the country’s Covid death toll to 20,442. HCMC accounted for two-thirds of the death toll today, at 74, followed by Binh Duong with 18, An Giang with 5, Dong Nai with 3, Tien Giang and Tay Ninh with 2 each, and Hanoi with one.
In related news, the HCMC Department of Health is preparing a plan to shut down Covid field hospitals in the city to restore the original purposes of schools, dormitories and resettlement apartment buildings which are being used for quarantining or treating Covid-19 patients.
The Covid pandemic in HCMC has basically been brought under control, according to the municipal department.
Since early July, the city has established 16 field hospitals with a combined 37,000 beds to treat Covid patients. The field hospitals are currently treating over 9,000 Covid patients, the local media reported.
As the Covid situation is stabilizing in the city, students are set to return to in-person classes in early 2022, and therefore it is necessary to gradually shut down these field hospitals in late October, November and December.
The better-equipped field hospitals 3, 6 and 8, converted from the Thu Thiem resettlement area in Thu Duc City, will be the final ones to close down in late December after other field hospitals stop operations.
In another development, the Ministry of Health is drawing up guidelines to vaccinate children aged between 12 and 17 this month, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan told a teleconference between the HCMC delegation of National Assembly deputies and voters today.
After the vaccination for children aged 12 to 17, the ministry will extend the vaccination program for younger children.
Together with a large volume of Pfizer vaccine doses set to arrive in Vietnam in the coming time, Vietnam has approved to buy 10 million doses of Cuba’s Covid vaccine, so the country will have abundant sources of vaccine for children.
