The Ministry of Health reported more than 9,600 domestic COVID-19 infections in Vietnam on Thursday, including over 3,800 patients in Ho Chi Minh City.

Forty-two provinces and cities recorded 9,653 locally-acquired infections while 14 separate cases were imported from abroad, the health ministry said.

The ministry had confirmed 8,752 domestically-infected patients in 33 provinces and cities on Wednesday.

Over 2,200 of the latest local cases were found in the community whereas the remainder were detected in isolated areas or centralized quarantine facilities.

Ho Chi Minh City registered 3,841 of the new domestic infections, up by 425 cases from yesterday, Binh Duong Province 3,028, Dong Nai Province 1,071, Long An Province 354, Tien Giang Province 212, Khanh Hoa Province 172, Dong Thap Province 132, Can Tho City 128, Da Nang 78, and Hanoi 78.

Since the fourth COVID-19 wave began in Vietnam on April 27, the country has documented 242,603 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top with 137,008 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 36,776, Long An Province with 12,609, Dong Nai Province with 11,239, Dong Thap Province with 4,469, Khanh Hoa Province with 3,673, Tien Giang Province with 3,626, Tay Ninh Province with 3,156, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 2,425, Hanoi with 2,258, and Can Tho City with 2,187.

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 ministry announced 3,991 recoveries on Thursday, taking the total to 89,145 recovered patients.

The death toll has climbed to 4,813 after the health ministry reported 326 fatalities the same day, including 225 registered in Ho Chi Minh City and 42 in Binh Duong Province.

The Southeast Asian country has detected an accumulation of 244,173 domestic and 2,395 imported cases since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it on January 23, 2020.

Over 12 million COVID-19 vaccine shots have been administered in Vietnam since the country rolled out vaccination on March 8, with nearly 1.1 million people having been fully vaccinated.

The Vietnamese government expects to obtain 175 million shots of various vaccines, including 51 million Pfizer-BioNTech jabs, by early 2022.

It 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!