HCMC – Vietnam’s Covid caseload jumped by 125,587 cases today, March 4 to reach over 4 million since the beginning of the pandemic.
Hanoi reported the most infections, at some 21,400, followed by Nghe An with 6,657, Bac Ninh with 6,011 and Son La with 4,182. Quang Ninh, Nam Dinh, Hung Yen, Lang Son, Phu Tho, Binh Duong and HCMC detected over 3,000 new cases each.
Besides, Bac Ninh Province added over 29,000 infections detected earlier to the national Covid case count management system.
This afternoon, the Ministry of Health confirmed 97 more Covid deaths, taking the nation’s death toll to 40,644. Hanoi, Nam Dinh, Quang Nam, Nghe An and Thai Nguyen reported the most fatalities today.
To date, nearly 2.59 million Covid patients in the country have fully recovered, while the number of critically ill patients has risen drastically, to some 4,240 today.
The country has administered more than 196.3 million doses of Covid vaccine nationwide so far, including some 179.5 million doses for people aged 18 or older and 16.8 million doses for children aged between 12 and 17.
In related news, the HCMC government has tightened anti-pandemic measures in areas with a high risk of transmission after most districts of the city saw their numbers of new Covid infections rise sharply.
According to the city’s vice chairman Duong Anh Duc, the Covid alert level in many wards has recently risen from level one (low risk) to level two (medium risk) or level three (high risk).
Duc said high-risk areas have to restrict the operations of non-essential services such as massage, cinema, karaoke, spas, bars, dance clubs and beauty salons.
They are also required to limit activities for weddings, funerals and festivals in accordance with Decision 3900 of the HCMC People’s Committee.
In addition, the city’s Department of Health is tightening control over the trade of Covid treatment drugs.
The city will prevent speculation of Covid treatment drugs, which can cause price hikes. Market surveillance agencies are increasing inspections to detect and prevent selling of Covid treatment drugs of unknown origin, smuggled drugs, drugs of low quality, and those taking advantage of the outbreak to hike prices.
Pharmacies across the city are required to instruct customers on how to buy and use the drugs in line with prevailing regulations.
