Vietnam on Friday morning recorded two new COVID-19 transmissions in a quarantine center of northern Hai Duong Province, the Ministry of Health announced in a report.

The two cases, patients 2,534 and 2,535, were found infected with the pathogen after spending time in quarantine in the province.

Patient 2,534 was sent to mandatory quarantine on Monday after being detected as a direct contact of a COVID-19 case in Hai Duong.

The patient is receiving treatment at Field Hospital No. 3, which is managed by the Hai Duong General Hospital.

Meanwhile, patient 2,535 was sent to quarantine on January 28 as a worker of the China-invested Poyun Electronics Co., which was deemed a major outbreak site in January.

According to the Ministry of Health report, patient 2,535 shared a room in the quarantine center with patient 2,299, a COVID-19 case announced on February 16.

Patient 2,535 exhibited symptoms of coughing and a sore throat on February 27 and received a positive test result on March 6.

The patient is also being treated at Hai Duong’s Field Hospital No. 3.

On Thursday, the Expanded Program on Immunization in Vietnam entered the fourth day of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with five more municipalities to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine, including Hai Phong, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, and Long An.

An additional 630 people were injected with the jab on that day.

This brought the total number of citizens vaccinated in the program to 1,585, the majority of whom are medical officers directly treating COVID-19 cases, as well as frontline workers doing sampling, contact tracing, and testing tasks.

The first phase of the vaccination campaign involves 13 provinces, where relevant forces are working in high gear to ensure training and logistics.

The Expanded Program on Immunization recorded four more cases of post-vaccination complications on Thursday, the vast majority of which are common side effects that had been recommended in advance such as muscle aches, fatigue, fever, headaches, chills, painful swelling at the injection site, and nausea.

Meanwhile, the worldwide transmission count was standing at over 119 million at 6:00 am on Friday, with the death toll soaring over 2.64 million, according to worldometers.com.

The United States has administered over 95 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which include the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson's products, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light to the U.S.-produced, one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday.

"With this latest positive opinion, authorities across the European Union will have another option to combat the pandemic and protect the lives and health of their citizens," Emer Cooke, the EMA's executive director, was quoted as saying on the agency's website.

"This is the first vaccine which can be used as a single dose."

The EMA has so far approved Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson shots for use in the European bloc.

Three other vaccines under rolling review by the EMA are CureVac, Novovax, and Sputnik V.

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