Vietnam hits half-year high in daily coronavirus cases
Vietnam logged 497 COVID-19 cases on April 13, representing a two-fold rise compared to the figure announced 24 hours earlier, the Ministry of Health said in its daily coronavirus update.
This is the highest number of fresh coronavirus infections that Vietnam has recorded on a daily basis over the past six months, it said.
The recent rise in fresh coronavirus infections has raised public concerns about the emergence of a new outbreak in Vietnam. However, the Ministry of Health played down the worry, saying the disease is still under control.
“The situation is still under control despite the increase in the number of cases here and there,” said Prof. Dr. Phan Trong Lan, director of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health.
Vietnam is one of the countries with a high rate of COVID-19 vaccination in the world, according to the professional.
In his opinion, besides the main variant Omicron, other minor variants have been detected, but they have yet to increase the risk of severity in patients.
However, he recommended people abide by warnings by the medical sector to better prevent them from virus infection, including wearing masks in public places and vaccinating people in high-risk groups.
He stressed the need to protect high-risk groups such as the elderly, pregnant women, people with underlying diseases, as well as frontline health workers, to avoid the overload in hospital.
“Our goal in the coming time is to reduce hospitalizations, reduce severe cases and deaths, and avoid overloading the health system,” said the expert.
Vietnam has so far documented more than 11.5 million cases since the start of the outbreak, ranking 13th out of 230 countries and territories worldwide. Of the total, more than 10.6 million sufferers have recovered from the virus.
