Single-day infection tally reaches 12,420 across 36 localities

Ho Chi Minh City and its neighbour Binh Duong province remain the hardest hit localities, with 5,549 and 4,531 local cases being recorded, respectively.

Hanoi registered 35 new cases, thereby taking the capital’s infection tally during the latest pandemic wave to nearly 3,700.

Following the latest additions, Vietnam is ranked 50th out of 222 countries and regions in terms of total infections and 158th in terms of infections per one million people.

An additional 12,523 COVID-19 patients have been released from hospitals over the past 24 hours to bring the total number of recoveries to 338,170.

The nation also recorded 272 COVID-19 fatalities on September 9, increasing the country's death toll to 14,470 and accounting for 2.5% of confirmed cases, a figure 0.4% higher than the world's average rate of 2.1%.

Most notably, more than 24.7 million vaccine doses have now been administered across the nation, in which around 4.1 million people have received full two doses.

Both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are in the process of redoubling efforts to fast-track testing and vaccinations against COVID-19 in a bid to contain the pandemic as soon as possible.

As the nation’s largest COVID-19 hotspot, Ho Chi Minh City has permitted eateries to resume delivery services from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day after being closed for nearly two months.

The city has also allowed supermarkets, grocery stores, and pharmacies to open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.

This comes following senior municipal officials recently mentioning the need to gradually open up the local economy and for people to learn to live with the pandemic.

Around 10 million doses  of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Hanoi and HCM City so far.