Vietnam confirms sixth wave of Covid-19 due to UK variant

A red scooter stands in an empty street in Vietnam.

An empty street in Vietnam. Picture: Loifotos from Pexels

Published Feb 3, 2021

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Cape Town – An outbreak of the more contagious UK variant of the coronavirus in Vietnam has affected 301 people and spread to 10 counties and cities.

There have been 1,705 new cases, 149 of which were community transmissions and one case of the UK variant documented from abroad.

Hanoi has reported one Covid-19 infection to “patient 1553”, a 31-year-old employee of Quang Ninh Province's Van Don International Airport, who was confirmed to be infected last Thursday morning.

"Gene sequencing showed that 12 of 276 newly detected patients are positive with the UK variant, although the source of this outbreak remains unknown. We need to follow mask-wearing regulations scrupulously," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long was reported as saying at a cabinet meeting.

"Hanoi has to increase measures to contain the virus. The health ministry will support the city to upgrade the testing capacity to 40,000 tests per day," Long said.

Vietnam is currently tackling its sixth wave of the coronavirus and around 220,000 residents in Chi Linh Town have been placed under immediate lockdown.

Depending on the severity of the outbreak in the hot spots, social distancing steps have been applied in other areas of Vietnam.

Vietnam approved the AstraZeneca vaccine on Saturday after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the country would have one in the first quarter.

The government has sought to procure 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but had previously claimed the procurement process was in negotiations.

The first batch of 50,000 was scheduled to arrive in March and the second batch from July onwards.

Vietnam has been applauded as having one of the most promising national responses to the pandemic.

African News Agency (ANA)

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Covid-19