Weekly COVID-19 update: 16 new cases, 28 recoveries

The latest cases include two foreigners - one Turkish man and Ukrainian woman.

The rest are Vietnamese, of whom two were brought home from Angola, two from Indonesia, one from Saudi Arabia, three from Myanmar, one from the U.S., one from the United Ara Emirates, three from France, and one from Russia. 

From December 14 to 20, 28 patients were declared free of the virus, raising the total number of recoveries to 1,269. The number of death related to the disease remained at 35 while none of the current patients is in critical health condition.

As many as 17,220 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entered Viet Nam from pandemic-hit regions are currently quarantined nationwide, including 202 at hospitals, 15,690 in concentrated quarantine establishments and the remainders at their residences.

As of late December 20, Viet Nam had gone 18 consecutive days without community infection. Of the patient tally, 693 are locally-transmitted cases including 553 cases reported since July 25.

A part from deployment of early and drastic measures to contain the pandemic, Viet Nam has also stepped up vaccine research and development.

On December 17, the country began the first phase of human trials of Nanocovax - one of the four vaccines under research and development in Viet Nam.

The Health Ministry urged people to strictly follow the 5K motto: Khau trang (Face masks) – Khu khuan (Disinfection) – Khoang cach (Keeping distance) - Khong tap trung dong nguoi (No gathering) – Khai bao y te (Health declaration) in order to prevent covid-19 transmission./.

By Kim Anh