Six out of the eleven imported patients of the coronavirus Omicron variant in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have been discharged from hospital after several days of treatment, local health authorities reported. 

These discharged patients were either asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms, Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, office chief of the city’s Department of Health, said at a press briefing on Friday.

The remaining five patients continued their treatment at Field Hospital No. 12 in Thu Duc City, part of Ho Chi Minh City.

The southern city recorded the first Omicron cases in five people who entered Vietnam through Tan Son Nhat International Airport on their flights from December 21 to 25.

The five people, including a Turkish woman and four Vietnamese, were confirmed to contract the variant via genome sequencing on December 31, 2021 but they were all retested negative one day later.

The sixth infection case was documented on January 3 in a Taiwanese flight attendant.

Nationwide, a total of 30 imported Omicron cases have been recorded, including 11 in the city, 14 in Quang Nam, two in Thanh Hoa, and one each in Hai Duong, Hai Phong, and Hanoi.

First reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by South Africa on September 24, the Omicron mutant, a.k.a. the B.1.1.529 variant, was designated by WHO as a variant of concern two days later.

The variant has now been reported by over 110 countries and territories, with health experts stating it appears to be more contagious but less virulent than previous strains.

As the Omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to surge across the world, it is crucial that more is done to help all countries receive lifesaving coronavirus jabs as quickly as possible, the WHO said on Tuesday.

Ho Chi Minh City, with some nine million inhabitants, had administered nearly 8.11 million first vaccine shots and some 7.25 million second jabs to its adult population as of Friday, the national COVID-19 vaccination portal reported.

Local health authorities expect to cover the third vaccine doses, including booster shots and additional primary jabs, to all people aged 18 and older by January 30, according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

The city has recently seen its daily COVID-19 cases and deaths falling remarkably, to 489 and 20, respectively, on Friday, compared to the 965 and 57 a month earlier, the Ministry of Health’s data shows.

However, the southern economic hub remains the locality suffering most from by COVID-19 in Vietnam, with 508,255 infections and 19,693 fatalities documented since the pandemic erupted in the Southeast Asian country in early 2020.

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