Vietnam reports nine more patients linked to Covid-19 hotspot

Two of the patients are in Hai Duong, four in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, two in Binh Duong Province that borders Ho Chi Minh City, and one in Hanoi.

Numbered from 1883 to 1891, the patients have had contact with people who were infected with the coronavirus from Hai Duong, the epicenter since infections returned to Vietnam's community on January 28.

The Wednesday cases raised the national community infections to 310, including 226 in Hai Duong and 38 in its neighbor Quang Ninh.

The two provinces were where the first infections of this new outbreak were detected. Infections have spread to eight other cities and provinces. Hanoi is now the third biggest cluster with 21 cases, followed by Gia Lai with 13. Binh Duong has reported four cases, Bac Ninh three, Hoa Binh two, and HCMC, Hai Phong and Bac Giang one each.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long told a meeting with local authorities on Tuesday night that all cities and provinces must speed up the progress in every steps of their fight against the pandemic, especially the testing capacity, as the outbreak has been confirmed to be caused the by U.K. variant that is 70 percent more transmissible.

Globally, the pandemic has killed more than 2.2 million people among more than 104 million infections.