240 new COVID-19 cases recorded, AstraZeneca urged to secure 10 million vaccine doses
VOV.VN - A further 240 people, including seven entrants tested positive for the SASR-CoV-2 virus on the evening of June 30, thereby raising the daily infection count to 450, according to figures released by the Ministry of Health.
Ho Chi Minh City continued to register the highest number of infections with 249 cases in June 30 alone, the majority of which involve individuals who came into contact with confirmed patients or are linked with previous outbreaks.
The cases found in other provinces are either F1 contacts of infected patients or were detected in areas under lockdown, including industrial parks.
Following the latest infections, the overall number of active COVID-19 cases rose to 16,863, including 1,798 imported cases, and 15,065 locally-transmitted ones.
Furthermore, June 30 saw an additional 76 COVID-19 patients released from hospital, boosting the total number of recoveries to 6,840.
The death toll increased to 81 following the confirmation of another fatality relating to COVID-19.
The latest deceased patient was a 61-year-old man in Ho Chi Minh City whose causes of death were attributed to pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, complications of progressive respiratory failure, and multi-organ failure in a patient with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Meanwhile at a recent urgent meeting with Nitin Kapoor, president of Asia and Frontier Markets at AstraZeneca and chairman and general director of Vietnam AstraZeneca, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked AstraZeneca to create the best possible conditions to help the country effectively implement its COVID-19 vaccine strategy.
Kapoor promised to try to persuade the firm to send at least eight million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the nation in July and early August, despite an ongoing global vaccine shortage.
AstraZeneca will also strive to assist the country with producing domestic vaccines and other essential drugs to treat cancer and cardiovascular diseases, among others, he said.
The cabinet leader also urged AstraZeneca to offer every opportunity for the nation to have at least 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses ready by early August to serve the ongoing free, safe, and effective vaccination campaign.
So far, the nation has received approximately 4.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses produced by AstraZeneca, either through contracts, global vaccine access mechanism Covax, or foreign aid.
The country is making every effort to secure 150 million vaccine doses this year to cover 70% of the local population toward achieving hear immunity by the end of the year or by early 2022.