Vietnam confirms over 164,000 new infections, 65,872 recoveries

A total of 164,596 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed by the Health Ministry on March 9, including 106,573 detected within the local community.

As a result of the latest infections, the total caseload since the beginning of the pandemic has now reached over 5 million.

New cases were reported in 63 provinces and cities across the country, with Hanoi registering the highest number of infection at more than 31,000.

Elsewhere, the three localities reporting the highest number behind the capital include Nghe An with 10,296 cases, Bac Ninh with over 9,000 cases, and Phu Tho with 5,594 cases.

The COVID-19 death toll nationwide also rose to over 41,000 with the confirmation of 109 fatalities over the past 24 hours, with Hanoi reporting the highest number of deaths at 24. The country’s COVID-19 deaths make up 0.9% of the total infections since the pandemic began.

The average number of deaths recorded over the past seven days now stands at 91 cases daily.

By March 8, the country had injected roughly 198.6 million vaccine doses, with more than 67 million people now fully inoculated, while over 1.492 million third shots have now been administered.

Furthermore, the total number of recoveries grew to more than 2.85 million after an additional 65,872 people were declared free from the virus on the same day.

To date, the World Health Organisation (WHO) still considers COVID-19 to be a global pandemic, and predicts unforeseen variations. In many countries, the pandemic remains complicated and requires the maintenance of high-level pandemic response activities.

Although the rate of severe cases and deaths in the country has strongly declined compared to the previous period, the daily number of deaths is still around 100.
Therefore, the Health Ministry said that the country should not consider the COVID-19 pandemic as an "endemic disease" at this time.