With 5,932 patients given the all clear during the day, the number of recoveries rose to 10,020,569.
Meanwhile, there are 106 patients in serious conditions needing breathing support. One death from COVID-19 was recorded in the past 24 hours. The total fatalities rose to 43,098.
On August 13, an additional 311,386 doses of vaccines were administered, raising the total number of doses of COVID-19 vaccines injected to 251,304,132.
HCM City ready to reactivate COVID-19 treatment hospitals
The Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City has recently requested its medical facilities to get plans readied for the acceptance and treatment of COVID-19 patients in the context of increases in the number of new cases.
The department assigned the Hospital for Tropical Diseases to be responsible for preparing human resources to reactivate the COVID-19 treatment hospital for severe cases when required.
In addition, it requested all hospitals, health centres and medical facilities in the city to actively review their resources to be ready to respond when the COVID-19 pandemic worsens.
The city's Centre for Disease Control was assigned to strengthen case surveillance through the Infectious Disease Surveillance System connected to the COVID-19 Digital Management Platform, with the focus on fluctuations in the number of new cases, and the status of vaccination for vulnerable people.
Ministry proposes keeping COVID-19 in Group A of infectious diseases
The Ministry of Health has proposed continuing to keep COVID-19 in Group A of infectious disease, not an endemic disease in its latest draft on COVID-19 prevention and control measures in the new situation.
Regarding the reason why COVID-19 has not been considered an endemic disease in Vietnam yet, the Ministry of Health said that most countries in the world are in a state of unstable cases and deaths, with an erratic increase and decrease trend when new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus appear. At the same time, acquired immunity (due to vaccines and infection) has not been stable for a long time and decreases over time.
In Vietnam, more than 9 million new cases were reported in the first seven months of this year, with over 33,000 cases in July alone, up 22.4% from June. Cases of sub variants BA.4, BA.5 have been recorded and began to account for a large proportion in southern provinces. Meanwhile, the rates of booster shot vaccination and vaccination among children were low in some localities.
Clinical trials of domestic COVID-19 vaccines updated
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has reported on the domestic production of vaccines against the COVID-19, and the receipt and immunisation of vaccines to the Prime Minister.
There are five vaccines being in the research and clinical trial process, namely Nanocovax, COVIVAC, ARCT-154, COVID-19 HIPRA and S – 268019, the ministry said, adding the research is being conducted on schedule and in line with contents of the research plans approved by the ministry. The work is expected to complete in December next year.
As of August 11, Vietnam received 253,071,094 doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 234,636,494 for the people aged 12 and above, and 18,434,600 for children aged between 5-11.
Hanoi makes efforts to speed up COVID-19 vaccination
Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi Tran Sy Thanh on August 9 signed a dispatch asking localities across the city to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination among local residents.
Along with speeding up the work on students in local schools in line with the Ministry of Health’s guidance, the localities were requested to complete it among the children between 5 and 12 years olds in August.
They were also asked to finalise the administration of the third and fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines to adults soon and hasten the injection of the third dose among the people aged from 12 to 18.
At the same time, the dispatch underlined the need to finish the vaccination for prioritised groups as soon as possible.
T.Huong
Source: Vitic/VNA