A pregnant woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Hà Nội's Thanh Nhàn Hospital on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — A total of 11,932 new COVID-19 cases have been detected in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to more than 600,000.

There were also a further 217 fatalities announced Saturday and an additional 56 added to the total from previous days.

Among the new cases, there were 5,169 cased detected in community.

Compared to Friday, the number of cases has decreased nationally by 1,379.

HCM City still tops the list with 5,629 new infections, followed by neighbouring Bình Dương Province with 3,971.

The total number of people catching coronavirus now stands at 601,349.

The other infections on Saturday were found in Đồng Nai (960), Long An (337), Kiên Giang (165), Tiền Giang (147), Tây Ninh (137), An Giang (107), Khánh Hòa (46), Cần Thơ (46), Quảng Bình (38), Hà Nội (35), Đồng Tháp (34), Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu (32), Quảng Ngãi (32), Bình Phước (31), Bình Thuận (31), Bình Định (19), Đà Nẵng (19), Đắk Lắk (18), Phú Yên (17), Sơn La (16), Quảng Nam (14), Sóc Trăng (11), Nghệ An (6), Đắk Nông (5), Ninh Thuận (5), Bạc Liêu (4), Thanh Hóa (3), Hưng Yên (3), Gia Lai (2), Trà Vinh (2), Bắc Ninh (2), Thừa Thiên Huế (1), Hà Tĩnh (1), and Bến Tre (1).

Among the new COVID-related deaths, 188 were in HCM City. The remaining fatalities were recorded in Bình Dương (10), Tiền Giang (2), Đồng Nai (4), Kiên Giang (3), Bình Thuận (2), Đà Nẵng (2), Gia Lai (1), Cần Thơ (1), Ninh Thuận (1), Khánh Hòa (1), Nghệ An (1), an Vĩnh Long (1).

In total, 15,018 people have now lost their lives due to COVID-related complications. 

A further 12,541 recoveries were reported on Saturday, taking the total number of patients given the all-clear to 363,462.

There are currently 6,232 people being treated in intensive care units and 29 patients on life support.

So far, 27,108,698  people have been vaccinated.

Among the new cases on Saturday, five were imported.

Decrease of new cases and deaths: MoH

Meanwhile, in a meeting of the COVID-19 Prevention and Control Steering Committee on Saturday, Health Minister Nguyễn Thanh Long said the rate of new community cases this week decreased compared to the previous week in some localities.

Infections in Đà Nẵng City dropped by 60 per cent, Bình Dương Province by 27 per cent and Long An Province by 3 per cent.

The average number of daily deaths nationwide dropped by 30 per cent, of which HCM City decreased by 30 per cent, Đồng Nai Province by 50 per cent, Long An Province by 30 per cent, and Tiền Giang Province by 70 per cent.

The pandemic was under control in districts No.7, Củ Chi and Cần Giờ of HCM City, Long said.

In Hà Nội, there were a number of cases with unknown sources of transmission. Therefore, it was necessary to speed up testing to detect infections in the community, the minister said.

The MoH has asked pharmaceutical companies to import raw materials and actively produce medicines to prepare for a long-term pandemic prevention and control strategy.

The MoH has also implemented a controlled treatment programme in the community with a total of 129,820 patients with initially positive results.

Mobile medical stations in HCM City, Bình Dương Province, and Đồng Nai Province have proved their effectiveness. The stations helped to reduce the load for treatment facilities and the number of deaths.

The localities were preparing a total of 13,100 emergency beds.

Regarding testing, 5.2 million people nationwide have had RT-PCR tests in the past week, increasing by 7.4 per cent as compared to previous week, mainly in Hà Nội and HCM City, the minister said.

Việt Nam’s testing rate per one million people is 107th out of 223 in the world. — VNS