By NewsDesk @infectiousdiseasenews
The Vietnam Ministry of Health recorded 9,716 cases of COVID-19 Saturday, bringing the cumulative total since the beginning of the pandemic to 255, 748.
Of the total cases today, 4,231 cases (44%) were reported from Ho Chi Minh City.
In addition to HCMC, Binh Duong (2,029) and Dong Nai (1,023) each recorded more than 1000 cases.
While the health ministry states the following: Since the beginning of the epidemic, Vietnam has had 265,464 infections, ranking 80/222 countries and territories, while with the rate of infections/1 million people, Vietnam ranks 172/222 countries and regions territory (2,700 cases on average for every 1 million people), things have really changed with the recent surge of the delta variant.
As Huong Le Thu reports from the Brookings Institution: Like many countries in the region, Vietnam is struggling to contain the spread of the variant, which first arrived in late April 2021. Before delta’s arrival, the country had recorded less than 3,000 cases and 35 deaths over 15 months since the pandemic started in January 2020. But by July 2021, the new case numbers surged to thousands daily and were increasingly hard to control. The highest (to date) single-day record at 9,684 cases on August 8, is equivalent of four times the number of all cases together in Vietnam in all of 2020.
Despite the bleak numbers in Vietnam, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Chairman of the Central Committee for Emulation and Commendation said, “We will definitely win the COVID-19 pandemic soon; so that our dear country Vietnam quickly returns to the new normal and the people have a peaceful, prosperous and happy life”.
