Today’s Covid News: Vietnam sees highest-ever coronavirus infections

Vietnam’s daily coronavirus infections hit a record high with 9,716 on August 14, including 44% in Ho Chi Minh City and 21% in Binh Duong.

The latest cases drove up the total to 265,464, including 168,479 active cases and 5,437 deaths.

Top localities with high infections included Ho Chi Minh City 144,770; Binh Duong 41,621; Long An 13,885; and Dong Nai 13,070.

Volunteers support the vaccination in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Phap Luat Xa Hoi

Ho Chi Minh City

The epicenter is racing against time to treat critical patients.

More than 300 rapid response teams have been set up in 22 districts and Thu Duc City to provide timely assistance to patients at home, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Each team, including doctors and nurses at grassroots clinical centers, volunteer drivers, youth union members, and police, will provide first aid and transport to medical stations. Patients under home treatment are provided with home-based care and a family medicine cabinet.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) has 10,000 asymptomatic cases and 12,000 others who finished one-week treatment in hospitals and have low viral load treated at home. (Viral load, also known as a viral burden, is a numerical expression of the quantity of virus in a given volume of fluid. The cycle threshold (CT) value indicates how much virus an infected person harbors).

The number of hospitalized patients is 32,608, including 2,182 children aged below 16. Of the total, 1,671 severe patients are put on ventilators while 15 others being on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) life support.

So far, Covid-19 has claimed 4,030 lives in HCMC, accounting for 79% of the country’s figure.

Duong Anh Duc, deputy chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, said the city reports an average of 241 deaths per day over the past few weeks, adding that the city’s priority is to bring down the fatalities.

“The important solution to control the pandemic and reduce the number of severe cases and deaths in HCMC is to vaccinate at least 70% of people aged above 18 by the end of August,” Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son told media today [August 14].

Thus far, some areas like District 11, Phu Nhuan, and Can Gio districts have finished vaccinating the first dose for more than 70% of its adults.

Duc predicted that the number of new infections will vary around 3,000 daily after August 15. “It’d hard for the city to keep its anti-pandemic achievements, even face the worse situation if the enforcement of restrictions was too weak.”

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who has spent days working in HCMC, said one of the most important strategies in the city’s Covid-19 response is to protect the “green zone” (safe zone).

The city currently attempts to enlarge the safe zone by tracking people’s traveling history to ensure safety.

Testing in Le Dai Hanh Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi on August 14. Photo: Khanh Huy/ Phap Luat Xa Hoi

Hanoi

The capital city is speeding up the massive testing to detect index cases in the high-risk zone together with protecting the safe zone.

Associate Prof. Tran Dac Phu, a senior advisor to the Vietnam Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC), said that keeping communities safe and enlarging them are necessary and sustainable in the long-term battle.

"Local people are showing good compliance with safety rules, one of the most important measures in the fight against Covid-19," Phu said.

“I believe that Hanoi will soon bring the pandemic under control if the restrictions are closely followed.”

Statistics by the health sector showed that more than 2,300 health workers have been infected with the virus since early 2020, none of them died of Covid-19.

In the fresh outbreak, more than 10,000 health workers are working the fight against Covid-19 in HCMC and other southern localities.

Vietnam's Covid-19 cases. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu