The 15th meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on July 5 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister
Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 15th meeting of the National Steering
Committee for Prevention and Control on July 5 amid the appearance of
the sub-variant of .
Opening the teleconference with
the 63 localities nationwide, PM Chinh, who is also head of the committee, pointed
out that the pandemic remains unpredictable around the world with the
emergence of the BA.5 sub-variant of Omicron in many countries.
In Vietnam, after the
pandemic was brought under control nationwide, some have lowered their guard,
especially in vaccination, while authorities have shown slackness in examination.
Meanwhile, the country still has to fight against other disease outbreaks and
care for people’s health amid the shortage of medicine and medical supplies, he
added.
Since the start of 2022,
Vietnam has recorded over 9 million infections of COVID-19, more than 8.3
million of whom have recovered and over 10,000 succumbed to the
disease (equivalent to 0.1%).
Total infections now stand at
10,748,639, including 9,708,984 recoveries (90.3%) and 43,087 deaths (0.4%),
according to the national steering committee.
PM Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting on July 5 (Photo: VNA)Over the last six months, the
daily number of new cases was around 600 – 700 while severe cases and
fatalities continued to decline. During the last 30 days, the numbers of new
infections and deaths have respectively fallen by 4.5 times and 10 times compared
to the previous month, and Vietnam recorded no deaths in 24 days.
By the end of July 3, Vietnam
had administered over 233 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine with almost 80% of its
population given two shots, the rate of people aged 18 and above given the third
shot doubling the global average, and the rate of children aged 5 – 11 given
primary shots higher than some European countries, making it one of the nation with
the largest vaccine coverage, statistics show.
At the meeting, participants said
BA.5 has been reported in Vietnam, and this sub-variant is 12% more transmissible
than the dominant BA.2 in the country at present. Therefore, BA.5 infections in
the community may increase in the time ahead, leading to a rise in the number
of new cases.
Given this, the anti-pandemic
response system from the central to local levels needs to press on with disease
prevention and control measures, the administration of booster shots to
vulnerable groups, as well as communications to raise public awareness, the
committee noted./.
Source: VietnamPlus
