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| A health worker wearing a protective suit takes a swab sample from a security officer on Friday at the National Convention Centre in Hanoi, the venue for the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party. (Photo by=Reuters) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] Vietnam's health minister said on Tuesday (Feb 2) a newly detected COVID-19 outbreak, which has infected 276 people and spread to 10 provinces and cities, is caused by the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus, according to Reuters.
Six days after the virus re-emerged in the northern province of Hai Duong, the cluster there was under control, health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to a government statement. Containing the virus in the capital, Hanoi - where 20 new cases have been detected - would take longer, he added. "Gene sequencing showed that 12 of 276 newly detected patients are positive with the UK variant, although the source of this outbreak remains unknown," Long told a Cabinet meeting. "We need to scrupulously follow mask-wearing regulations."
Thanks to targeted mass testing and strict quarantining, Vietnam has kept its virus tally to 1,882 cases and 35 deaths, winning plaudits worldwide for one of the most successful national responses to the pandemic. Hanoi has taken 15,000 samples since the latest outbreak and currently has the capacity to conduct 5,000 tests a day, an official from Hanoi's health department said on Monday. Vietnam reported 31 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday. Officials have said they will try to contain the outbreak by Feb 6.
