Covid-19 sources spread all over HCMC, says health department

By Le Phuong   July 6, 2021 | 05:00 am PT
Covid-19 sources spread all over HCMC, says health department
People in HCMC line up for coronavirus tests, July 6, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran.
Random health checks at hospitals and in lockdown areas have accounted for a majority of infections detected in HCMC, indicating infection sources are widespread, officials say.

Between April 26 and July 4, the city recorded 6,470 local Covid-19 cases in 306 of 312 wards and towns, according to the municipal health department.

Of those cases, 23 percent were detected via mass testing in the community, 12 percent among those seeking medical examinations at local hospitals, 25 percent in lockdown areas and the rest at at centralized quarantine facilities.

In the preceding 24 hours until Monday morning, the city had recorded 711 new infections, including 169 identified via random medical checks at hospitals and 12 through community mass testing.

The figures prove that "the transmission sources have spread all over the city," the municipal health department said.

As of Monday morning, HCMC had placed 738 areas under lockdown after detecting Covid-19 cases.

On Sunday, the city became the worst-hit locality among all 55 infected cities and provinces. Its infection tally for the ongoing wave that started April 27 in Vietnam has reached 7,385.

HCMC chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said at a city meeting last week that the Covid-19 wave Vietnam was currently experiencing was "more dangerous, complicated and unpredictable than previous ones."

The spread of the disease has proved how complicated the pandemic has become, especially considering the World Health Organization warning that the Delta variant is much more transmissible and has the ability to reduce the effect of Covid-19 vaccines developed to date, he said, adding that "the rate of secondary infection and the spreading speed of this variant is strong, therefore the number of infections is likely to keep rising in the coming days."

The city will continue its social distancing measures, locate infected areas and trace down all people related to the infections for imposing lockdowns where needed.

It will also continue the mass testing campaign it launched June 26 to detect all possible infections in the community.

The city of more than 13 million including migrants have vaccinated more than 856,000 people, mostly with their first shots. A total of 710,773 people got their shots in a historic campaign between June 19 and 27.

 
 
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