The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has urged local health departments across the country to strengthen the management and reporting of COVID-19 cases.

The move came amid a rise in coronavirus infections in the country and the world, as well as the appearance of the fast-spreading Omicron sub-variants like BA.4, BA.5, BA.2.75, BA.2.12.1 in the country.

Over the past week, Viet Nam has reported 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 on average every day.

The Ministry of Health has warned of an increase in both COVID-19 infections and critical cases across the country as more than 100 critically ill patients are being treated at hospitals nationwide.

The increase in COVID-19 infections and critical cases could put greater pressure on the country’s health system as apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, diseases such as monkeypox, dengue fever, influenza, and hand, foot and mouth disease are entering their peak season, according to the Ministry.

Local health departments nationwide have been asked to timely report new cases in their localities to the Ministry. Timely surveillance of the incidence of new cases is essential for effective control during an ongoing pandemic, according to the Ministry of Health.

Local health departments must report accurately new cases in the 24 hours in their localties to the Ministry of Health so that these COVID-19 data can be promptly submitted to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in order to enable all neccessary measures to be taken to tackle the virus. Special attention must be paid to accurately reporting daily case count in localities in order to avoid providing supplementary data for case numbers that could lead to an inaccurate reflection of the COVID-19 situation and cause difficulties for pandemic forecasts.

Localities must continue to report new cases and get their codes on the Ministry's automatic code-granting system right after their positive test results are confirmed.

COVID-19 risk assessment and control measures must be continued to evolve in regular reviews across localities nationwide in line with the direction from the National government on strengthening surveillance, early detection and treatment of COVID-19 patients in a bid to reduce severe cases and deaths.

Data provided by the Ministry of Health shows that Viet Nam had registered 11,370,462 cases of COVID-19 as of August 16. The total number of recoveries has reached over 10 million till date. On August 16, there were 99 patients needing breathing support.

The country has to date administered more than 252 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Translating by H.L