Vietnam confirms 15,936 new local Covid cases

Most of the new cases were detected in Hanoi at 2,909.

It was followed by two central localities: Da Nang with 892 cases and Khanh Hoa with 652 cases.

HCMC recorded the first three Covid-19 patients with the Omicron variant in the community after they came into contact with a person coming from the U.S.

Authorities are quickly tracing contacts to prevent the spread of the variant.

In the past 24 hours, 142 Covid-19 patients have died, including 16 in the southern province of Dong Thap. The average death tally in the last seven days is 164.

Since the pandemic started last year, the death toll in Vietnam has climbed to 36,114, or 1.7 percent of all infections.

In the latest wave that hit the country in late April, more than 2.07 million cases have been confirmed and nearly 1.79 million have recovered.

So far, 75.6 percent of the population have received two vaccine doses and 20.7 percent have received the third dose.