HCMC – The Ministry of Health this evening, March 11, reported 169,114 fresh Covid cases, the highest number recorded in a single day to date.
Among the latest cases, 24 were imported and 169,090 were locally infected in 61 cities and provinces, up 8,429 cases against yesterday.
Hanoi City as usual took the lead in the number of domestic cases at 31,899, followed by Nghe An with 11,057, Phu Tho with 6,352 and Bac Ninh with 6,346.
Binh Duong, Son La, Hung Yen, Lang Son, Hoa Binh and Hai Duong detected around 4,000 to 5,500 infections each, while other localities had fewer than 4,000 cases each.
Meanwhile, the Vinh Phuc Department of Health registered to add 19,326 cases detected earlier to the national Covid case monitoring system.
The new cases have raised the country’s Covid count to some 5.5 million since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nearly 75,000 Covid patients were announced to have fully recovered from the disease today, taking the total recoveries to over 2.9 million.
The ministry also reported 71 new Covid fatalities in 31 cities and provinces, raising the county’s Covid death toll to 41,228.
In related news, the Hanoi Department of Health has conducted gene sequencing of 109 Covid cases, discovering 80% of them infected with the Omicron variant.
The gene sequencing was conducted from December 4 last year to March 1, deputy director of the municipal department Vu Cao Cuong told a teleconference held by the city’s anti-Covid steering committee on March 10.
The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant was responsible for 86 cases of 93 Omicron-hit cases.
The fast-spreading Omicron variant is dominating new Covid cases in Hanoi City, the local media reported.
As the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the other variants, the number of Omicron-hit cases will continue to soar in the city, according to the Hanoi Department of Health.
In spite of a surge in daily Covid cases, the number of critical Covid patients is dropping, said Director of the municipal department Tran Thi Nhi Ha.
Hanoi City has 326 of 579 communes, wards and towns at high risk of Covid transmission, but no areas at extremely high risk.