Daily Covid-19 tally scales new high with over 27,000

Of the new infections, 19,271 were found within the local community.

The capital continued to record the highest number of infections with 2,981 cases, followed by Nam Dinh with 1,842 and Hai Duong with 1,681.

The national tally has now reached 2,484,481, including 192 infections of Omicron.

An additional 78 deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours to take the total number of fatalities to 38,402, accounting for 1.5% of the total caseload.

Furthermore, a total of 6,270 patients were declared free from the virus, thereby taking the total number of recoveries up to 2,218,939.

Nationwide, 79.2 million people have now received their first COVID-19 vaccine shots, whilst over 74.6 million have now received their second inoculation and 31.3 million have already received their third jab.

Meanwhile, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has recommended that the People’s Committee close down the 1,000-bed COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Thu Duc city, saying there are now few severely-ill patients.

The southern city’s largest COVID-19 ICU unit would be handed back to the newly-built branch of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, chief of the department office, told a recent meeting.

However, the closed facilities could be reopened within 24 hours if needed, she assured.

Health officials have also warned that infections are likely to spike in the city over the next few days following the Lunar New Year celebrations and the return of holidaymakers from other cities and provinces.  

Despite this, severe cases and deaths are expected to remain low due to the high vaccination rates and excellent quality of treatment now available.

The city will strive to accelerate the administration of the third dose of vaccines to increase the coverage to more than 80% of its population.