HCMC – The Ministry of Health yesterday, December 17, confirmed 15,236 new Covid-19 cases, including 21 imported cases and 15,215 locally-infected infections, down 52 domestic cases day-on-day.
Among the domestic cases found in 59 provinces and cities across the country, the source of transmission of more than 9,800 cases remains unknown.
The Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre yesterday took the lead nationwide by case number, at 1,246 cases, up 486 against the previous day. Ca Mau, another province in the delta, came second with 1,071 cases, down 268 cases over the day earlier, followed by HCMC with 1,040 cases, Tay Ninh with 940 cases, Binh Phuoc with 817 cases. Besides, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Hanoi were among the localities that had around 530-800 cases.
In the day, 31,057 coronavirus patients were declared free of the disease, the highest number up to now, sending the country’s total recoveries to 1,095,518 cases.
Meanwhile, 246 other patients died of the coronavirus in the day, bringing the Covid death toll in Vietnam to more than 29,100 cases.
In related news, Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta is implementing its Covid-19 vaccine booster shot campaign for people aged 18 and older, with the priority given to people in vulnerable groups and frontline healthcare workers. The campaign is expected to end in the first quarter of 2022, provided that it could receive sufficient vaccine doses from the Health Ministry.
According to the Tien Giang Center for Disease Control, as of December 17, the province’s first-dose vaccination rate for the over 18s reached 100,6%, equivalent to over 1.4 million people receiving the first shot, and its second-dose rate hit 94.9%.
In the northern province of Ninh Binh, the provincial health authority last night released Dispatch No.3557, replacing Dispatch No.3529, saying that people returning to Ninh Binh from the capital city of Hanoi will not be subject to the quarantine mandate and only have to make health declarations and take a Covid test at local medical stations upon their arrival in the province. Earlier, on December 16, this northern province had required people coming from Hanoi to undergo quarantine.
