HCMC – Dong Nai Province has reported 660 additional Covid-19 cases, sending this southern province’s tally in the current fourth wave to 15,629 cases, a local health official said this morning, August 19.
Among the cases, nearly 5,200 patients have fully recovered and were discharged from hospital, while 106 others have died, according to Phan Huy Anh Vu, director of the provincial Department of Health.
Through Covid screening tests, the Health Department said that there remain many coronavirus cases in the community. Moreover, the number of critically-ill patients could rise and thus overwhelm the ICUs at local medical facilities, while many localities have been slow in reporting their Covid vaccination progress to the provincial health authority due to the lack of personnel.
Besides this, the province reported three more infections among Covid-19 frontliners, raising the total number of medical workers infected with the disease to 104 cases. A number of local State employees, police officers who were on duty at quarantine centers and field hospitals as well as volunteer students have also caught the deadly disease.
The head of the provincial health authority proposed that mass Covid testing be ramped up in big infection clusters in lockdown areas and the province’s vaccination drive be launched concurrently.
Earlier, the southern province had set up a Covid vaccination plan for local residents in the year. It is set to inoculate all of the residents aged 18 or over from this month until the end of the year, with over 2.2 million people expected to get vaccinated.
The vaccination drive will take place throughout the week, including holidays. The province will not limit the number of vaccine doses being administered each day and will prepare backup vaccination teams to ensure the vaccination is not disrupted.
Dong Nai was allocated more than 525,000 vaccine doses and is carrying out its vaccination program. The province requested additional allocations of nearly 4.2 million doses from the Ministry of Health in the third and fourth quarters this year to be administered to those over 18 years of age.
