Weekly COVID-19 update: 20 new cases, 22 recoveries

The latest cases include two foreign experts who came from UK and Austria. The rest are Vietnamese nationals brought home from Japan (six), Germany (two), the U.S. (six), the Philippines (one), France (one), the UK (one), and the Czech Republic (one).

With 22 more patients cleared of the virus, the total number of recoveries increased to 1,361. The number of COVID-19 fatalities remained at 35 while two of the current active cases are in critical health conditions.

A total of 17,634 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or arrived from pandemic-affected regions are placed under quarantine nationwide.

As of late January 10, Viet Nam has gone 40 consecutive days without community infection.

Along with drastic and early measures deployed to contain the pandemic, Viet Nam has  stepped up vaccine research and development, with the second scheduled to begin human trial on January 21-22.

On January 5, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered temporary suspension of inbound flights from countries and territories that have reported new variants of SARS-CoV-2, firstly the UK and South Africa./.

By Kim Anh