HANOI: Vietnam’s health ministry reported six new COVID-19 infections and two more deaths on Monday (Aug 10), bringing the total number of cases in the country to 847, with 13 fatalities.
Most of the new cases, including an 8-year-old boy, are linked to the central city of Danang, where the new outbreak began late last month.
The ministry said more than 182,000 people are being quarantined in the country, including 5,139 at hospitals, 28,408 at centralised quarantine centres and the rest at home.
Aggressive contact tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam halt an earlier contagion, but it is now racing to control infections in Danang and beyond after a new outbreak was detected there on Jul 25.
On Friday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc warned that the risk of COVID-19 spreading widely in Vietnam is “very high”.
“The risk of community infection is very high, requiring more determination, solidarity and responsibility from the political system in order to take stronger and more determined measures over the next two weeks,” he said.
Broad restrictions are in place in Danang, a popular resort town of 1.1 million, and a sports stadium has been converted into a 1,000-bed field hospital, to be used if hospitals are overwhelmed, or to isolate potential cases.
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