Daily COVID-19 cases have recently risen again in Vietnam’s economic hub Ho Chi Minh City after sharply declining for around two weeks, prompting local health authorities to suggest the resumption of quarantine facilities and makeshift hospitals.

The municipal Department of Health offered the suggestion to the city’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control at an online meeting to review the epidemic situation on Saturday.

Director of the department Tang Chi Thuong asked the committee to re-establish isolation centers in every district and reopen field hospitals soon to be ready for receiving and treating COVID-19 patients, as confirmed cases have increased over the past week.

Compared to 5,000-6,000 infections per day in September, the situation has recently improved, especially from October 23 to November 6, when most daily counts fell to below 1,000 cases, or even to 682 patients on November 2.

However, the number of patients started exceeding 1,000 per day from November 7, with 1,388 and 1,240 cases recorded on Friday and Saturday, official statistics show.

Over the past seven days, many infection chains have been detected in Thu Duc City, District 12, Binh Tan District, Go Vap District, Hoc Mon District, and Binh Chanh District, Thuong told the meeting. 

An average of 40 people die of COVID-19 in the city now, people aged over 65 accounting for 52 percent and those with underlying diseases representing 85 percent, the official said.       

Over the past three days, most deaths have been logged in District 12, Go Vap District, Binh Tan District, and Tan Binh District.

Ho Chi Minh City has documented 443,546 COVID-19 cases and 17,137 deaths since the pandemic erupted in Vietnam in early 2020, the Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

Despite a recent spike in daily infections, the city daily death toll has sharply dropped, to 38 on Saturday from 228 two months earlier.

Nationwide, 1,018,346 coronavirus patients have been recorded, including 858,054 recoveries and 23,018 fatalities.

Similarly, the country has seen its daily mortalities go down remarkably, to 88 on Saturday from 298 two months back, notwithstanding its daily infections gradually climbing again from mid-October, according to the ministry’s data.

The Vietnamese government has eased COVID-19 restrictions to reopen the economy in ‘new normal conditions,’ a reference to living safely with the coronavirus, since early October.   

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