Close to 15,000 new COVID-19 cases recorded over 24 hours

A further 14,929 fresh COVID-19 infections were confirmed by the Ministry of Health on January 28 across 62 cities and provinces nationwide, marking a decline of 790 from the previous day.

In line with the total, Hanoi continued to record the highest number of infections with 2,885, followed by Bac Ninh at 1,013, and Da Nang at 886.

The past 24 hours has seen the deaths of 141 COVID-19 patients, thereby pushing the nation death toll up to more than 37,430, or 1.7% of all infections since the pandemic initially broke out last year.

Following the fourth wave of infections which hit the country back in late April, more than 2.2 million cases have since been detected, whilst over 1.49 million people have now fully recovered.

The same day witnessed the Ministry of Health announce the discharge of a further 4,633 COVID-19 patients after they fully recovered from the virus, thereby raising the total number of recoveries up to 1,950,244.

As of January 27, the country had injected over 180 million vaccine doses, with more than 79 million people now fully inoculated, while over 27 million booster shots and third shots of the Abdala vaccine have now been administered.

In another move, Ho Chi Minh City will continue offering additional and booster COVID-19 vaccine shots across 22 districts, wards, and Thu Duc city during the Lunar New Year festival, known locally as Tet, according to the municipal Centre for Disease Control.

Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City is set to conduct COVID-19 vaccinations throughout the Lunar New Year holiday, which will last for nine days starting this weekend, according to the local Department of Health.

This effort is being done as the southern city aims to achieve vaccine coverage by the end of February as directed by the Prime Minister.

Vietnam is in the process of striving to finish the injection of second shots for children aged 12 to 17 by late January and the third shot for those aged 18 and above by the end of the first quarter this year.