Ho Chi Minh City warned against new COVID-19 variants

On January 31, an MoH delegation inspected the southern city’s COVID-19 response at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the health centre of District 3, and the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

They assessed that the southern city had performed well in pandemic prevention and control during the Lunar New Year, known locally as Tet, period in late January. However, as new variants are likely to enter and spread among the community following Tet, it must devise plans to combat disease transmission.

Dr Nguyen Vu Thuong, deputy director of the HCM City Pasteur Institute and a member of the MoH delegation, cited the World Health Organisation as saying that the virus remains a global health emergency, with the most worrying concern being the development of variants which are vaccine- and drug-resistant.

Though the number of hospitalised cases in the southern city has fallen sharply, new variants may spread within the community and attack the elderly and unvaccinated people, he noted.

He suggested that local authorities issue strong recommendations at tourist attractions and places of worship to remind people of the need to wear face masks, as well as increasing communication to encourage locals to get vaccinated against the disease.

As of January 31, the country had recorded a total of 11,526,497 cases of COVID-19, including more than 10.6 million recoveries and over 43,180 deaths. Meanwhile, over 266.09 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered.