A medical worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine shot in the southern province of Long An. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — A further 8,622 domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections were recorded in Việt Nam on Friday, along with 27 imported cases in the past 24 hours, making this the second-highest daily increase in cases since the beginning of the pandemic, pushing the total in the fourth wave to 133,257.

HCM City, the epicentre of the current outbreaks, continued to top the national case count with 4,282 new patients, bringing the southern city’s caseload to more than 86,000 since late April, as the authorities are set to extend current strict lockdown measures beyond August 1 for another one to two weeks.

The next four localities with biggest daily increases are Bình Dương (1,920), Long An (469), Đồng Nai (360), and Tiền Giang (242) – all in the southern region which has also been placed under strict social distancing in line with the Government’s Directive 16 along with HCM City since mid-July.

The breakdown of the remaining new cases in the country is as follows: Khánh Hòa (217), Cần Thơ (174), Đồng Tháp (157), Hà Nội (144), Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu (133), Bến Tre (97); Tây Ninh (88), Đà Nẵng (65), Phú Yên (40), Trà Vinh (36), Hậu Giang (28), Bình Định (17), Kiên Giang (17), Bình Thuận (17), An Giang (16), Vĩnh Long (15), Quảng Nam (13), Bình Phước (12), Ninh Thuận (11), Vĩnh Phúc (9), Đắk Lắk (8 ), Hà Tĩnh (7), Gia Lai (6), Quảng Ngãi (6), Đắk Nông (4), Thái Nguyên (3), Lạng Sơn (2), Hòa Bình (2), Nam Định (1), Lâm Đồng (1), Thanh Hóa (1), Hải Dương (1), and Bắc Ninh (1).

1,702 among the new cases announced on Friday are logged as community cases.

298 deaths occurring between July 16-30 have been added to the national register on Friday, according to the report from the treatment subcommittee of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, with HCM City accounting for the majority (254) and the remainder split between mostly southern localities.

This is the biggest daily increase so far, bringing the death toll in the country to 1,161.

The number of patients in intensive care units (ICU) is currently 411, up significantly from yesterday’s 346 and the 221 from the day before.

21 COVID-19 patients are in critical condition, and on life support.

The health ministry announced a project to enhance treatment capacity of seriously-ill COVID-19 patients which would involve getting 12 national-level COVID-19 intensive care centres based in major hospitals across the country with total 8,000 beds. The ministry also asked 30 hospitals to upgrade and set up regional-level COVID-19 intensive care centres with a capacity of 50-100 beds, expandable to 150 and 200-300 beds depending on the outbreak situation.

A further 3,704 patients have been given the all clear today, bringing the total recoveries to 35,484.

5,529,898 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Việt Nam by the end of Thursday, with 546,402 people having been fully inoculated. — VNS