HO CHI MINH CITY, 2 Feb 2021:
Millions of Vietnamese children stayed home today after the authorities ordered school closures across 22 provinces to stop the spread of Covid-19 – following the detection of the biggest coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began in the country.
Vietnam, in the last five days, detected 276 community infections – which ended a streak of no local infections detected for almost two months.
The Health Ministry said in a statement today the new Covid-19 wave was caused by the so-called British strain of the coronavirus, which is more contagious and has a shorter incubation time.
The ministry reminded people to mandatorily use face masks and a non-compliance could mean “severe punishments.”
The health authorities said they detected one case today in Hai Duong province, epicentre of the new outbreak.
The government has isolated a town in the area and confined some 2,340 employees of a factory after one of them was in direct contact with an infected person.
The outbreak spread to the capital Hanoi, to the central region and Ho Chi Minh – the most populated city – forcing local authorities to advance school holidays for the Lunar New Year to begin next Friday.
Millions of people travel across the country to sightsee and visit families for the Lunar New Year, Vietnam’s biggest holiday.
Although the number of cases is low compared to other countries, the resurgence of local infections caused a commotion in the country – which had gone 55 days without local transmissions and which has accumulated just 1,850 infections, including 35 deaths since its first case.
The Hanoi authorities announced they would increase the number of PCR tests in the coming days, with a maximum of 10,000 a day.
The state television, controlled by the Communist Party, earlier warned that citizens must prepare for a scenario of 30,000 cases if the outbreak is not controlled quickly.
Meanwhile, Thailand’s Covid-19 cases have breached the 20,000 mark after 836 infections were reported over the past 24 hours.
Two more deaths were also reported over the same period, bringing the cumulative figures in the kingdom to 20,454 cases and 79 fatalities since the first infection was detected in January last year.
Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration spokesman Thaweesilp Wissanuyothin said the two deaths involved Thais, a 75-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man. Both patients had underlying health conditions.
Of the 836 new Covid-19 cases, he said 710 were confirmed through active case detection, with 688 in Samut Sakhon, the epicentre of the latest outbreak in Thailand. A total of 109 cases including a 26-day-old baby girl were those seeking treatment at hospitals
“A total of 17 imported cases were reported, including three Thais returning from Malaysia,” he said at a Covid-19 daily briefing today.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman Natapanu Nopakun said the number of daily Covid-19 cases will remain relatively high because of the active case detection exercise, which will continue until next week.
“However, this is no cause for alarm as it reflects the efficiency of our public health system in curbing the spread of Covid-19.”
Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) disclosed that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is seeking approval for its single-shot Covid-19 vaccine, reported Bangkok Post today.
FDA deputy secretary-general Dr Surachoke Tangwiwat said J&J had started the vaccine registration process. “The company is required to have the relevant papers and file them within 30 days.”
J&J is the third Covid-19 vaccine maker seeking registration with Thailand’s FDA. The other two vaccines are developed by AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford, and China’s pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Ltd.
Last month, Thailand’s FDA granted a one-year emergency use approval for imported Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford.
– EFE, Bernama