COVID-19 daily count falls by over 5,000 to 9,521 on September 4

Ho Chi Minh City remains the biggest COVID-19 hotspot with 4,104 local cases being detected, followed by Binh Duong province with 2,485, Dong Nai with 992, Long An with 544, and Tien Giang with 148. Elsewhere, Hanoi logged 52 new domestic cases.

The country has so far registered a total of 511,170 positive cases since the pandemic first hit the nation early last year, while the number of recoveries has risen to 282,516 after 11,848 patients were released from hospital after going on to make a full recovery from the virus.

A total of 347 deaths were confirmed on September 4, with the majority of them occurring in Ho Chi Minh City. The COVID-19 fatality count now stands at 12,793, or 2.5% of the overall infections, 0.4% higher compared to the COVID-19 mortality rate in the rest of the world.

At present, over 21 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, with over 3 million people being fully vaccinated after receiving both doses.

Despite a recent major outbreak in Hanoi being brought under control, the capital is still seeing high risk of infections among the wider community. Consequently, the capital is set to continue imposing a strict lockdown across 10 districts, whilst having some restrictions in place in five others, which are considered high-risk for 15 days starting from September 6.

Most notably, the Government’s Directive 16 which is considered the most stringent of measures with people required to stay at home unless going out for food or other emergencies, will continue to be applied.

Hanoi has so far recorded more than 3,700 active COVID-19 cases during the fourth wave of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health has therefore demanded that all localities test residents in social distancing areas between now and September 15.

Municipal authorities will move to either test people at their places of residence at least three times during that period, either by rapid tests or PCR.