Vietnam reported more than 3,300 coronavirus cases on Friday, including over 2,400 patients in Ho Chi Minh City, according to the Ministry of Health.

Fifteen of the new infections were imported from abroad while the remaining 3,321 were detected in 33 provinces and cities, the ministry said in an evening update.

A total of 2,939 cases were found in concentrated quarantine centers or isolated areas.

Today’s infection rise is the second-biggest so far, after a record 3,416 patients were logged nationwide on Thursday.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded 2,420 of the latest domestically-infected patients, down from 2,691 cases a day earlier.

Among other places that detected many transmissions are Binh Duong Province with 166 patients, Dong Thap Province with 158, and Tien Giang Province with 146.

The health ministry announced 332 recoveries on Friday, taking the total to 10,020 patients.

It also confirmed 18 virus-related deaths registered from July 8 to 14 in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Thap, Long An, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Bac Ninh, and Bac Giang.

Since April 27, when the fourth and worst virus wave broke out in Vietnam, the country has recorded 40,609 community cases, 7,246 of whom have recovered, according to the health ministry's data.

Ho Chi Minh City is in the front with 23,913 infections, followed by Bac Giang with 5,729 patients, Binh Duong with 2,175, Bac Ninh with 1,682, and Dong Thap Province with 1,039.

By comparison, Vietnam confirmed 106 community cases in the first wave from January 23 to April 16, 2020, 554 in the second from July 25 to December 1, 2020, and 910 in the third from January 28 to March 25, 2021. 

The Southeast Asian nation has overall detected 42,179 domestic and 2,007 imported cases since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year.

Nearly 4.2 million vaccine shots have been administered to medical workers, teachers, factory workers, and other frontline staff since Vietnam rolled out inoculation on March 8.

Over 294,000 people have been fully vaccinated.

The Vietnamese government set a target of immunizing two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!