According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), the country logged 149 additional COVID-19 cases, including 146 domestic incidents, from 6 am to 12 pm today.
Of the new domestic infections, 137 were detected in quarantine sites or sealed-off areas.
The national count reached 15,889 by June 28 noon, with 14,117 local and 1,772 imported cases.
The number of new COVID-19 cases since the fourth wave of outbreaks that began on April 27 amounts to 12,547, including 3,545 recoveries.
Fourteen localities have gone two weeks without any new infections in the community.
To date, 6,319 people have been given the all-clear, as announced by the sub-committee for treatment under the MoH. The death toll has reached 76.
Of the patients who are under treatment at medical facilities, 370 have tested negative for the coronavirus once, 125 twice and 152 thrice.
Ho Chi Minh City is now the COVID-19 hotbed in the current fourth wave. As of 6 pm on June 27, the city had vaccinated 710,773 people against COVID-19. Around 93,264 others have delayed their vaccination through screening, accounting for 13.12%.
The 4th phase of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the southern economic hub started on June 19.
The figure does not include 26,000 health workers at private medical facilities.
According to the city’s Department of Health, in the fourth round of COVID-19 vaccination, there were 676 cases of post-injection reactions. All have been closely monitored and are in stable health now.
According to Prof., Dr. Phan Trong Lan, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, one of the reasons the city and some southern provinces have seen a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 infections recently may be due to the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Currently, the B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), P.1 (Gamma) and B.1.617.2 (Delta) variants are classified as variants of concern, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) classification.
Of which, the Delta variant, which has been recorded in 85 countries, is up to 70% more infectious than the older variants, capable of spreading rapidly and potentially reducing the protective effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.
The Delta variant (B.1.167.2) is estimated to be 40-60% more infectious than the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7), and the rate of secondary infection (close contacts to infections turning positive) of Delta infected is much higher than that of Alpha.
Lan emphasised that the Delta strain is capable of spreading faster than the original virus strains.
The transmission chains in the southern region have been recorded mainly in households, shared dining places and at office buildings. Recently, there has been spread in neighbourhoods, factories, and crowded market areas.
"People from Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces in the Southeast region have the habit of traveling a lot and live in a crowded environment, thus creating an increased risk of infection. For example, Patient 7488 was exposed to Patient 7445 and had symptoms after 32 hours. There have been other patients who infected others after 38 hours. Thus, with the nature of the virus spreading quickly and strongly, the high viral load lasting longer makes the infection process longer and shortens the infection time from one person to another," said Lan.
Therefore, the expert recommended local people need to be aware of the importance of limiting behaviour that poses a risk of infection like mass gatherings, and comply with the 5K message, including khau trang (facemask), khu khuan (disinfection), khoang cach (distance), khong tu tap (no gathering), and khai bao y te (health declaration).
It is also important to gradually improve herd immunity by increasing vaccine coverage, he stressed.
