Of the total figure detected in 41 provinces and cities, Ho Chi Minh City and the southern province of Binh Duong recorded the highest number of infections with 4,516, and 2,358.

Some southern localities also recorded hundreds of local cases, while others reported either single or double-digit cases.

Among the new cases, 2,470 were recorded in the community and the remainders in quarantine zones and areas that have been isolated. Vietnam has so far registered a total of 2,437 imported cases, and 272,607 local transmissions.

More than 271,000 domestic cases were recorded nationwide during the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in late April, of which more than 99,000 patients have been declared to be clear of the virus.

One day earlier, the Health Ministry confirmed more than 9,716 new COVID-19 community transmissions in 40 cities and provinces, with HCM City hotspot continuing to take the top spot at more than 4,200 local cases.

The same day the Health Ministry announced the discharge of 5,519 COVID-19 patients, therefore raising the total number of recoveries to over 102,000.

A further 337 patients died from the disease across 14 provinces and cities, with the total number of fatalities increasing to 5,774.

August 14 saw nearly 613,000 people inoculated against COVID-19, bringing the total number of vaccinated people to more than 14.4 million.

Elsewhere, southern localities continue to see increasingly complicated developments of the pandemic, especially with Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s current COVID-19 hotspot, which will go ahead with its continued strict social distancing order for another month until September 15.

Source: VOV

Vietnam to buy additional 20 million Pfizer vaccine does

The Vietnamese Government has agreed to buy a further 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, as part of the deal for 31 million doses of the vaccine as adopted by the Ministry of Health in May.