The ministry said it has kept regular contact with the World Health Organization to update information about Omicron mutations.

It requested that localities enhance grassroots-level medical capacity, step up communication campaigns and encourage people to strictly follow pandemic control measures.

New Zealand authorities announced on May 25 that they had detected the first case infected with the BA.2.12.1 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant in the community.

BA.2.12.1 is currently the dominant variant that has spread rapidly in the United States. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the new subvariant has made up about 58% of all new US cases.

BA.2.12.1 is said to spread more rapidly than previous versions of the Omicron. It evolved from BA.2, which itself was more contagious than any variant that came before it.

In Vietnam epidemiologists are conducting genome sequencing to detect new subvariants of the Omicron.

On May 26, the Ministry of Health confirmed 1,275 new coronavirus infections in 47 cities and provinces nationwide.

The capital of Hanoi was the only locality that recorded daily infections in three digits, at 303, raising its infection tally to nearly 1.6 million, including 1,336 deaths.

Vietnam has so far confirmed more than 10.7 million cases, ranking 12th out of 227 countries and territories worldwide. Of the total, nearly 9.5 million patients have recovered from the disease, and more than 40,000 patients have died of the SARs-CoV-2 virus and related underlying illnesses.   

Source: VOV