HCMC – The Ministry of Health confirmed 15,935 new Covid infections today, January 21, including 34 imported cases and 15,901 domestic transmissions in all localities nationwide but Dak Lak Province, falling by over 700 cases against yesterday.
Hanoi reported the most infections, at 2,805, followed by Danang with 964, Haiphong with 796, Hung Yen with 685 and Ben Tre with 618.
Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, Binh Phuoc, Binh Dinh and Bac Ninh detected 418-509 new infections each, while other cities and provinces had fewer than 400 cases each.
The country’s domestic transmissions have amounted to some 2.104 million in the fourth Covid wave, which began in late April 2021, and over 2.11 million cases in total, ranking 28th among 223 countries and territories.
Up to now, Vietnam has found 133 people with the Omicron variant, mostly in HCMC, Quang Nam, Hanoi and Danang.
This afternoon, the Ministry of Health also confirmed 177 more Covid deaths, taking the nation’s death toll to 36,443. Hanoi, Dong Nai, Soc Trang and Vinh Long reported the most fatalities today.
To date, nearly 1.8 million Covid patients in the country have fully recovered, while there are currently over 4,500 critically ill Covid patients.
According to the Ministry of Health, most Covid fatalities in the country were elderly people and those with underlying conditions, with around 85% of them unvaccinated.
The number of critically ill Covid-19 patients has fallen by two-thirds against the peak of the pandemic in August and September 2021.
The ministry said the number of fatalities has dropped from 300-350 a day to below 200 but the figure is still high.
Regarding vaccination, the country has administered almost 173.7 million doses of Covid vaccines nationwide so far, with some 73.6 million people having got two shots and 21.4 million people triple-dosed.
The Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Health Ministry has agreed with the Moderna vaccine producer’s recommendation that the dosage of Moderna for use as a booster shot is 0.25 ml, half of the dose used for a primary jab.
The recommendation was based on prescribing information released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2021 saying that “a primary series of the Moderna vaccine is two 0.5 ml doses administered intramuscularly one month apart. A booster dose may be administered intramuscularly at least six months after completing a primary series. A single booster dose of the Moderna Covid vaccine (0.25 ml) may be administered as a heterologous booster dose following completion of primary vaccination.”
According to Duong Thi Hong, vice chairwoman of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the 0.25 ml dose of Moderna as a booster shot is applied to people that were injected with Moderna in the first and second doses.
For people that received the first and second doses of other approved Covid vaccines, the dosage of Moderna for use as the third dose will still be 0.5 ml.
