People in Hà Nội's Hoàn Kiếm District get vaccinated against COVID-19 on Thursday morning. — VNA/VNS Photo Thành Đạt

HÀ NỘI — The Health Ministry on Thursday announced a further 233 deaths related to COVID-19. The pandemic has now claimed 863 lives in Việt Nam.

Of those new deaths, 189 occurred in HCM City from July 24 to 26, 14 deaths in Khánh Hòa Province from July 19 to July 26, 10 in Long An Province from July 25 to 26, eight in Đồng Nai Province from July 23 to 26, six in Bến Tre Province from July 20 to 25, four in Vĩnh Long Province from July 20 to 26 and two in Bình Dương Province from July 20 to 22.

Việt Nam also confirmed a further 7,594 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, bringing the national total to 128,413.

Of the new cases, there was only one imported while the other 7,593 cases were locally transmitted. HCM City had the most cases again with 4,592, followed by Bình Dương (1,144), Long An (499), Đồng Nai (325), Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu (185), Đồng Tháp (157), Tây Ninh (139), Bình Thuận (63), Hà Nội (59), Đà Nẵng (54), Phú Yên (52), Đắk Lắk (44), Cần Thơ (39), Bình Phước (35), Vĩnh Long (31), Kiên Giang (21), Khánh Hòa (18), Trà Vinh (18), Hậu Giang (13), Bình Định (11), An Giang (10), Hải Dương (10), Thừa Thiên Huế (10), Quảng Nam (10), Nghệ An (7), Lạng Sơn (6), Vĩnh Phúc (6), Thanh Hóa (6), Bạc Liêu (4), Đắk Nông (4), Phú Thọ (4), Cà Mau (4), Hà Tĩnh (4), Ninh Thuận (3), Lâm Đồng (2), Hà Giang (2), Ninh Bình (1) and Quảng Ngãi (1).

Of the new locally transmitted cases, 1,536 infections were detected in the community, outside of quarantined or locked down areas.

As of Thursday, in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Việt Nam that began on April 27, a total of 124,635 domestic infections have been recorded.

Five northern provinces – Yên Bái, Điện Biên, Quảng Ninh, Bắc Kạn and Nam Định - have not recorded any new infections for 14 days.

On Thursday, 4,323 COVID-19 patients were given the all-clear, bringing total recoveries in Việt Nam to 31,780 cases.

There are 346 seriously ill patients currently being treated in intensive care units (ICU), and 19 patients in a critical condition requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) life support.

In total, 5,321,09 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Việt Nam to date, with 496,630 people having received the full two shots. — VNS