Vietnam's fourth wave of COVID-19 is its first 'real wave' as tally crosses 1,800 cases

Vietnam has gone on high alert as fourth wave of COVID-19, which began late last month, is country’s biggest yet. According to Nikkei Asia, Vietnam on May 21 reported 131 more local coronavirus cases, pushing its community tally wave since April to 1,892. In just a few weeks, country has recorded over 1,600 cases and Bac Giang Province, epicentre, alone recorded 99 infections on Friday. 

As per reports, particularly transmissible B16172 variant, a sub-line of B1617 variant first identified in India, has been found in several community cases sampled. Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Vu Duc Dam has asked authorities to bolster efforts to prevent supply chain disruptions, especially in troubled rrn provinces. Dam reportedly said that priority in rth is to ensure equate disease precautions to let multinational manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics sustain ir operations. 

On Friday, Dam said that besides closely monitoring outbreaks and strictly managing workers in industrial parks, Bac Ninh and Bac Giang need to “quickly allow” businesses to resume operations if safety, hygiene and epidemiological measures can be ensured. Deputy Vice President focused on enterprises involved in large supply chains stretching nationwide and globally. 

First ‘real wave’ 

Epidemiologist Michael Toole from Melbourne's Burnet Institute, on or hand, told Straits Times that in reality, current wave is Vietnam’s first “real wave”. He said that or waves were just “blips”. It is worth ting that since pandemic began, country has h only around 4,600 cases, which is fewer than a tenth of Singapore’s. 

However, vaccination in Vietnam has reportedly been slow. As of Tuesday, only 28,852 people h been fully vaccinated. Around one million doses have to date been ministered from AstraZeneca vaccine supply it received through direct purchase or Covax scheme. Moreover, country is also negotiating to buy doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine to accelerate iculation. 

(Im: Pixabay/AP)