Health authorities in Hanoi recently detected four more cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant after conducting genome sequencing on the patients’ samples at a local hospital.

Vice-chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Xuan Dung chaired a teleconference with authorities in districts and towns on Wednesday to discuss more drastic measures to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the meeting, Dung stated that the genome sequencing process had recently detected four Omicron cases among the COVID-19 patients being treated at Bach Mai Hospital.

“This had already been predicted and competent authorities have implemented specific response plans,” the vice-chairman added.

Hanoi has so far reported 18 out the 205 Omicron cases officially logged in Vietnam.

The Omicron mutant was designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of concern in November 2021. 

The COVID-19 pandemic remains serious in Hanoi, with an average of 5,128 cases recorded daily over the past week, vice-chairman Dung continued.

The reopening of non-essential services, tourism, and aviation, as well as the cold weather have also brought about many challenges, the official assessed.

He praised the relentless efforts of local health authorities and frontline forces in pandemic response, stressing the importance of minimizing the number of seriously-ill patients and deaths.

Authorities must also focus on providing treatment, information, and sufficient medicine for COVID-19 patients who are quarantined at home.

Hanoi has documented more than 218,300 local infections and over 870 coronavirus-related deaths since the fourth virus wave hit the country in late April 2020.

Nearly 6.1 million out of eight million people in the capital city have received their first vaccine dose, while about 6.2 million have been jabbed twice, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

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