HCMC – The Ministry of Health this evening, November 18, confirmed 10,223 new Covid-19 cases, with 14 of them imported and 10,209 locally infected in 60 cities and provinces, up 370 cases day-on-day.
Among the domestic cases, HCMC still took the lead with 1,609 infections, up 272 cases over yesterday, followed by Binh Duong with 686, Tay Ninh with 632 and Tien Giang with 622.
Dong Nai, Dong Thap and An Giang provinces detected over 500 cases each, while the rest were confirmed in other localities.
Since the current fourth wave of the pandemic began in late April, the country has reported over 1.06 million domestic infections, with some 880,000 patients having recovered from the disease.
The ministry also reported 139 new Covid fatalities, including 42 in HCMC, 22 in An Giang, 16 in Kien Giang and 14 in Binh Duong, while other provinces and cities reported fewer than 10 deaths each. The latest Covid fatalities have raised the country’s Covid death toll to 23,476.
In related news, due to a surge in new Covid infections, the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, which reported 95 Covid cases today, has decided to put into operation a Covid field hospital in Duc Trong District with 500 beds and speed up the vaccination of students aged between 16 and 18.
Three doctors and six nurses are working at the field hospital, which is treating 61 Covid patients. Once the number of Covid hospitalizations surges, the field hospital will mobilize more medical workers, said Dr Le Van Tien, director of the Lam Dong General Hospital, who was appointed as director of the field hospital.
Between November 22 and 23, some 21,000 students at high schools in Dalat City and four districts of Duc Trong, Don Duong, Lac Duong and Lam Ha will get a first shot of the Covid vaccine, the local media reported.
Elsewhere, the Binh Thuan government has urged all districts in the province to apply the home-based quarantine and care method for Covid patients with no or mild symptoms and direct contacts of positive cases to ease the overload facing the concentrated quarantine centers and Covid treatment facilities.
Speaking at an anti-pandemic meeting today, the provincial government said that the province had opened 146 concentrated quarantine centers and 40 Covid treatment facilities for Covid patients.
The province is facing a shortage of medical workers as Covid cases climb. As such, it is necessary to quickly apply the home isolation method, according to the provincial government.
