Daily infection count rises to nearly 78,000 across 61 localities

Hanoi continued to lead the way in terms of infections with 10,783 cases being detected, trailed by Nghe An with 3,985 and Vinh Phuc with 2,955.

Furthermore, 88 deaths were confirmed on the same day, including 24 in Hanoi, meaning the COVID-19 death toll has now crossed 40,000 or 1.2% of total infections.

A further 20,427 COVID-19 patients were announced to have recovered over the past 24 hours, duly bringing the total number of recovered cases up to over 2.37 million.

At present, 70.8 million adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, with 67.19 million being given their second jab and more than 1.4 million having received their third inoculation.

As of February 25, a total of 99% of people above 18 years old had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, while 98% had been given two doses, and 32% have had three. Meanwhile, 99% of children aging 12 to 17 have got at least one dose and 94% had two. So far, the nation has injected roughly 193 million out of 213 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines it has received, according to Deputy Health Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen.

With regard to measures aimed at ensuring safety for children when they return to school, he outlined that the ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Education and Training to issue documents guiding the pandemic prevention and control activities, which can be applied flexibly in each locality to suit their situation.

Moreover, the Ministry of Health was asked to assess the risk for unvaccinated children under 12 years old and give detailed solutions aimed at protecting them. The expansion of the vaccination group to children under five years old must therefore be considered carefully and scientifically.