New COVID-19 cases cross 60,000 in a single day

The Health Ministry announced a further 60,355 new domestic COVID-19 cases across 62 cities and provinces nationwide, marking a rise of 4,467 cases from the previous day.

The majority of the new cases were detected in Hanoi with 7,419, followed by the northern provinces of Bac Giang with 2,998 cases and Hai Duong with 2,944 infections.

Over the past 24 hours a total of 91 COVID-19 patients have died, including 11 in Hanoi where the highest number of new infections were recorded.

Since the pandemic started last year, the country’s death toll has climbed to 39,719 or 1.3% of all infections.

During the latest wave that hit the country in late April, more than 2.96 million cases have now been confirmed, with over 2.3 million of them going on to fully recover.

As of February 22 as many as 408,611 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines were administered, thereby raising the total number of doses given so far in the country to more than 192 million.

Meanwhile, Hanoi authorities continue to roll out a score of measures aimed at helping local safely and flexibly adapt to and effectively control the COVID-19 pandemic. This is along with following the policy of decentralisation by assigning the right to carry out pandemic prevention and control efforts for districts and towns, particularly as the number of new infections in the capital continues to move on an upward trend.

Secretaries of Party Committees and chairpersons of People's Committees of districts and towns have been assigned to directly instruct and take responsibility for reviewing and improving medical capacity at a grassroots level. They are therefore making thorough preparations to avoid passiveness and overloading as new infections may rise over the coming days.

Authorities of these districts and towns are also requested to direct the grassroots political system to continue improving the general quality of pandemic prevention and control, thereby applying technology in patient treatment and support, and strengthening the role of community COVID-19 prevention and control groups.