A medical worker takes a sample from a teacher at Trưng Vương School in Hà Nội's Hoàn Kiếm District on Saturday for COVID-19 testing. The city plans to test all participants of the online opening ceremony for the new school year which is scheduled to be held on Sunday morning. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — A total of 9,521 new coronavirus cases were announced on Saturday, bringing the national tally to 511,170.

The figure represented a drop of more than 5,300 cases compared to the previous day.

Among the new patients 4,734 were discovered in the community, outside already locked down or quarantine zones.

HCM City still remains the country’s largest COVID-19 hotspot with 4,104 new cases, followed by the neighbouring provinces of Bình Dương (2,485), Đồng Nai (992) and Long An (544).

Compared to the previous day, HCM City saw a decrease of 4,395, Bình Dương, 1,191 and Long An, 20 cases. 

The capital city of Hà Nội reported 52 new infections. 

Hà Nội authorities reported that the city has vaccinated around 32 per cent of its population. The city targets to administer 150,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine each day.

New patients were also found in Tiền Giang (148), Tây Ninh (137), Kiên Giang (125), Đồng Tháp (120), Quảng Bình (110), Bình Thuận (99), Cần Thơ (76), Đắk Lắk (73), Bình Phước (62), Khánh Hòa (51), Đà Nẵng (47), Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu (39), An Giang (35), Nghệ An (32), Phú Yên (29), Quảng Ngãi (23), Thừa Thiên Huế (22), Sóc Trăng (21), Bạc Liêu (15), Trà Vinh (14), Gia Lai (12), Sơn La (9), Thanh Hóa (8 ), Bình Định (7), Vĩnh Long (7), Cà Mau (6), Lâm Đồng (5), Ninh Thuận (3), Bắc Ninh (3), Bến Tre (2), Hà Tĩnh (1), Thái Bình (1), Lạng Sơn (1) and Đắk Nông (1).

The ministry reported 347 deaths on Saturday, bringing the country’s total number of fatalities to 12,793.

A total of 11,848 patients were given the all-clear, taking the number of recoveries to 282,516.

As of Saturday, more than 21 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Việt Nam, with 3,047,525 people fully inoculated. — VNS