A midwife has died of COVID-19 in a province in southern Vietnam this week, having yet to be vaccinated because of her pregnancy.

Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong, director of the Department of Health in Binh Duong Province, on Tuesday sent a condolence letter to the family of 32-year-old Duong Nguyen Thuy Trinh, a midwife at Binh Duong General Hospital, after she died of the respiratory disease during her 20th week of pregnancy.

In the letter, Chuong said family members and colleagues will forever be proud of Trinh for sacrificing herself in the cause of protecting and taking care of the people’s health.

Trinh had contracted the coronavirus and been treated at a facility of Binh Duong General Hospital in Phu Chanh Ward in the province’s Tan Uyen Town over her deteriorating condition.  

She passed away on Monday night.

She had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 due to her pregnancy.

Binh Duong is currently the second-hardest virus-hit locality in Vietnam, only after Ho Chi Minh City, with 49,833 infections, including some 550 patients in severe conditions.

On Tuesday, the southern province reported 3,332 new local transmissions.

Trinh was not the first medical staff in Binh Duong to be infected with the coronavirus, according to the provincial health department, which declined to give a specific number.

Her workplace, Binh Duong General Hospital, which has been treating serious COVID-19 patients in the province, has been overloaded, according to Dr. Van Quang Tan, director of the hospital.

In addition to COVID-19 patients, the hospital still receives and treats severe cases of other diseases.

Nearly 12,500 coronavirus-infected cases are being treated in medical facilities in Binh Duong. 

More than 100 of them are pregnant women.

As of Wednesday morning, Vietnam had documented 293,301 COVID-19 cases, with 111,308 recoveries and 6,472 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has detected 289,276 domestic transmissions in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities in this fourth bout, which started in late April.

Ho Chi Minh City is on top of the caseload with 156,186 patients.

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