Vietnam records 16,305 new Covid cases, 17 new Omicron cases in HCMC

The three localities with the highest numbers of local cases in the day were Hanoi with 2,810, Da Nang with 874 and Hai Phong with 814 cases.

The Health Ministry also confirmed 139 Covid-19 deaths Saturday, taking the nation's Covid-19 death toll to 35,480, or around 1.8 percent of all infections.

Hanoi for the first time topped the daily Covid fatalities with 18 confirmed deaths, followed by HCMC with 16.

HCMC, once the Covid epicenter, reported 364 local infections on Saturday. The city's Health Department on the same day confirmed another 17 Omicron cases among foreign arrivals who were quarantined upon entry.

Vietnam has recorded 68 cases infected with the Omicron variant so far, all imported. There are 30 in Ho Chi Minh City, 27 cases in Quang Nam, three in Da Nang, two each in Thanh Hoa and Khanh Hoa, and one each in Hanoi, Hai Duong, Hai Phong and Long An.

So far, 1,715,147 Covid patients in the country have recovered. Around 72.1 million people have received their second vaccine shots and 16.2 million have received their third.