Vietnam Records Highest-Ever Daily COVID-19 Tally As Outbreak Worsens

Vietnam on Monday recorded more than 100 new cases of COVID-19 via community transmission for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health said.

By noon on Monday, Vietnam had recorded 109 cases of COVID-19, with the majority found in the capital of Hanoi, nearby northern provinces, and the coastal city of Da Nang.

This figure is expected to rise by Monday evening as further cases are added to the tally.

The new cases were linked to a 27-year-old man who returned to Vietnam from Japan on April 7, and a Chinese expert that entered the country in search of work, both of whom tested positive after completing their mandatory two-week quarantine.

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Vietnam has repeatedly been praised for its response to the pandemic, yet after a month without any community transmissions of the Coronavirus, local cases emerged again on April 27. Since then, the country has recorded more than 400 cases.

Last week, Hanoi authorities locked down a cancer hospital and the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, which has been responsible for dealing with all COVID-19 cases in northern Vietnam since the pandemic began, after discovering clusters in each facility.

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Authorities in the Vietnamese capital also shuttered schools, bars, and karaoke parlors in Hanoi and several other provinces.

As of May 7, the Southeast Asian nation had so far offered one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to fewer than 750,000 people.

Vietnam has officially recorded just 3,444 Coronavirus cases and 35 deaths since the pandemic began.