HCMC – The Ministry of Health this evening, April 9, confirmed 34,140 fresh Covid cases, down nearly 5,200 cases from the day earlier.
Hanoi City as usual recorded the highest number at 2,202, followed by Bac Giang with 1,956, Nghe An with 1,656 and Phu Tho with 1,652.
Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Daklak, Bac Kan, Quang Ninh and Quang Binh also had more than 1,000 cases each.
The latest Covid cases have raised the country’s caseload in the current fourth wave to nearly 10.2 million, with nearly 8.5 million having fully recovered from the disease.
Today alone, some 41,900 patients were announced to have recovered from Covid-19.
The ministry also reported 26 new Covid fatalities.
According to the HCMC Department of Education and Training, as of April 7, 77.58% of parents of children aged between five and 11 in the city agreed to let their children get Covid vaccine shots.
Specifically, 60.75%,74.18% and 88.32% of parents of five-year-old children, primary students and sixth graders, respectively, agreed on the vaccination of their children.
Duong Tri Dung, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Education and Training, said schools had been completing procedures to coordinate with the healthcare sector to administer the vaccine to students as soon as the vaccine arrives in Vietnam.
Dung asked schools to propagandize the benefits of the vaccination to those parents who have yet to agree on the vaccination of their children.
In related news, at a meeting of the national anti-Covid steering committee on April 9, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Vietnam was able to deal with existing Covid variants but might find it hard to cope with new variants. Therefore, all residents and agencies must not be heedless.
In March, the numbers of community-transmitted Covid cases, critical cases, hospitalizations and deaths fell, paving the way for the socioeconomic growth, the tourism reopening and the reopening of in-person classes, PM Chinh said.
He required keeping a close watch on the developments of the pandemic and preparing response plans for a worse situation.
The Ministry of Health reported at the meeting that over the past three weeks, the number of daily Covid cases plunged from 150,000 to some 50,000, critical cases fell from over 3,600 to 1,500 and Covid fatalities dropped from around 50 to 30.
The country has administered more than 207 million Covid vaccine doses, including over 190 million doses to residents aged 18 and older and over 17 million doses to children aged between 12 and 17.
The ministry expected the vaccination of children aged from five to 11 to be completed this quarter.
