A vaccine being administered in Lâm Thao District, Phú Thọ Province, on Monday. — VNA/VNS Photo Trung Kiên

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health announced 3,168 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the country's tally to 867,221. 

A further 75 deaths were also announced, mostly in southern provinces (51 in HCM City and 14 in Bình Dương Province). The national death count is now 21,269, about 2.5 per cent of the total confirmed cases.

Five southern localities saw three-digit numbers of new cases today; HCM City (968 cases), Bình Dương (439), Đồng Nai (393), Sóc Trăng (174), and An Giang (109), followed by four more Mekong Delta provinces; Kiên Giang (99), Tiền Giang (94), Cà Mau (77), Long An (68) and Đồng Tháp (61), showing that the southern regions continue to be the country's biggest hot spot.

The breakdown in daily new cases in the rest of the country is as follows; Phú Thọ (58), Bạc Liêu (48), Đắk Lắk (46), Quảng Nam (45), Thanh Hóa (42), Gia Lai (40), Trà Vinh (33), Khánh Hòa (31), Hậu Giang (28), Bình Thuận (28), Cần Thơ (27), Nghệ An (25), Nam Định (22), Kon Tum (20), Hà Nam (20), Quảng Ngãi (19), Tây Ninh (18), Bình Định (15), Quảng Bình (15), Vĩnh Long (14), Thừa Thiên Huế (12), Bến Tre (9), Bình Phước (9), Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu (8 ), Quảng Trị (8 ), Phú Yên (6), Ninh Thuận (6), Tuyên Quang (6), Hà Nội (6), Đắk Nông (4), Bắc Ninh (4), Thái Bình (3), Ninh Bình (1), and Hà Giang (1). Nine cases were imported. 

Việt Nam's seven-day average of daily new cases stands at 3,260, down by nearly 1,000 from the average of 4,183 noted a week before.

In the past 24 hours, 107,224 pooled COVID-19 tests were performed on 202,147 people. The number of tests during the fourth wave of infections (starting from April 27) has reached 20,938,514, with 57,727,568 people tested.

The Health Ministry also announced the recovery of 1,136 patients on Monday, bringing the total to 792,980.

Of the current patients hospitalised, 3,543 are in a serious condition, 534 require invasive ventilation and 21 are on life support (ECMO).

Việt Nam to date has received 92.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines of various types. A total of 63.4 million doses have been administered (1.31 million doses on October 17), with 18.1 million people now fully vaccinated. — VNS