Tân Phú District's Hospital in HCM City has installed a fence around its campus. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI - The Ministry of Health confirmed 277 local cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, including 28 connected to the Christian church cluster in HCM City.

The new cases bring the total number recorded in the country's fourth wave of infections to 3,784.

Most of the domestic infections were close contacts (F1) with other confirmed coronavirus patients or linked to previous outbreaks.

Among the locally transmitted cases, 170 were reported in Bắc Giang, 52 in Bắc Ninh, seven in Hà Nội, seven in Lạng Sơn, three in Hà Nam, two in Hải Dương and one each in Long An, Tây Ninh, Điện Biên, Bạc Liêu, and Gia Lai. 

The National Cancer Hospital in Tân Triều facility and the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Đông Anh facility also reported one positive case each.

As many as 28 COVID-19 infections were connected to the cluster involving a Christian church in Ward 3, Gò Vấp District, HCM City and one case was identified as an F1 contact with a previously confirmed case.

The new case in Long An is also related to the Revival Ekklesia Mission Christian sect.

All the Bắc Ninh cases were from the Thuận Thành and Khắc Niệm outbreaks while Bắc Giang cases were quarantined previously.

In Hà Nội, six cases were F1s of previously confirmed patients and one case was from Quế Võ-Bắc Ninh Canon Company. 

All the patients in Hải Dương and Hà Nam were F1s.

As of 6pm on Saturday, Việt Nam had logged a total of 5,354 domestically transmitted cases and 1,502 imported infections.

The country has seen 2,896 recoveries and 47 deaths related to the disease.

The same day, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology announced it has detected gene mutations in four out of 32 COVID-19 patients' samples after gene sequencing process.

Dr Lê Thị Quỳnh Mai, deputy director of the institute, said the scientists discovered there is a key mutation with Y144 missing on the S protein of the virus B.1.617.2 first discovered in India.

This mutation was similar to the mutation detected on variant B.1.1.7 first discovered in the UK.

According to Mai, B.1.617.2 data on GISAID has not yet recorded the mutation, so it still needs to be monitored and studied.

GISAID is an updated map of SARS-CoV-2 gene sequencing results, which is updated by scientists around the globe. VNS