HCMC – The Ministry of Health confirmed 14,829 new Covid-19 cases this evening, January 4, with 34 of them being imported and 14,829 others being domestic cases, down over 1,000 cases against yesterday.
The health authority of Tra Vinh Province in the day registered to update 6,867 cases to the national Covid-19 monitoring system. Accordingly, the total number of new Covid cases announced by the ministry today reached 21,728 cases.
Among the domestic infections found in 60 provinces and cities, the capital city of Hanoi again took the lead with its new record of 2,499 cases. The southern province of Tay Ninh came second with 916 cases. Khanh Hoa, HCMC, Binh Dinh, Haiphong, Binh Phuoc reported around 590-790 cases, while Ca Mau, Vinh Long, and Ben Tre each had over 400 cases.
In addition, 224 more Covid deaths were reported today, sending the Covid death toll in Vietnam to 33,245 cases to date.
More than 16,200 coronavirus patients were declared free of the disease the same day, bringing the country’s total recoveries to over 1.41 million.
Further, Vietnam has reported 25 cases of the Omicron variant up to now. All of them were quarantined upon arrival in the country, with 14 cases in Quang Nam, six in HCMC, two in Thanh Hoa, and the rest in Hanoi, Hai Duong, and Haiphong.
In related news, according to the government of Bac Giang City in the province of the same name, local schools from kindergarten to secondary level suspended in-person learning and switched to virtual learning starting today.
The move came after the Covid situation in the city turned complicated and hit many local schools.
Last Thursday, this northern city detected an infection cluster at a primary school, with the first case being a fourth grader. The source of transmission was reportedly linked to a foreign English teacher. As of today, the city reported five Covid-hit schools, with 127 teachers and students infected with the disease. The authorities are adopting measures to slow the spread of the disease.
In another development, the central province of Phu Yen launched its Covid booster shot campaign today.
In the campaign, the province was provided with 40,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and over 37,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the Health Ministry. The booster shot program will be implemented across the province and is scheduled to end before the Lunar New Year holiday.
As of last Friday, 94.6% of the over-18s population in Phu Yen had been vaccinated against Covid, with 86.5% of them having received two shots. In the group of children aged 12-18, the first-dose vaccination rate reached 96% and the second-dose rate was 31.9%.
