HANOI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The total COVID-19 cases in Vietnam surpassed the grim mark of 3 million on Thursday amid a new resurgence, showed data from the Ministry of Health.
The Southeast Asian country registered 69,128 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 3,041,506, with 39,884 deaths.
Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication, and infectivity. It had succeeded in keeping the virus under control for over a year with aggressive contact tracing and quarantine procedures but was hit hard later by the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, which triggered the fourth wave of infections in late April 2021.
In the ongoing wave, as many as 3,034,211 community cases have been registered as of Thursday, accounting for 99.8 percent of the total infections.
Putting the pandemic under general control and the fourth infection wave under relative control in October 2021, the government has been faced with the challenge to recover the country's paralyzed economy as soon as possible.
Vietnam officially changed its strategy in fighting COVID-19 in October last year, from "zero COVID-19" to safe and flexible adaptation to and effective control of the pandemic.
The appearance of the Delta and the later Omicron variants has made border closures, strict quarantine of COVID-19 patients and their close contacts, as well as tight lockdown in pandemic-hit areas, become less effective, read an article published recently by the Vietnam News Agency.
"The 'freezing' of socio-economic activities and education have entailed severe adverse impacts and consequences, and could not last forever," the article said.
However, it is undeniable that resuming socio-economic activities have come with greater virus transmission.
Vietnam hit the milestone of 1 million COVID-19 cases on Nov. 11 last year, 22 months after the detection of the first case and just a few weeks after the reopening. However, the 2 million-mark for total cases was surpassed just two months later, on Jan. 15 this year, and the 3 million-mark took only over one month to reach.
In recent days, the daily tally has continuously hit new records. Vietnamese health authorities earlier warned of a resurgence after the nine-day Lunar New Year festival, the country's biggest and longest holiday which ended on Feb. 6 this year, during which gatherings and travels often peak in a year.
On Thursday, an all-time high of 69,128 COVID-19 cases were recorded nationwide, surging nearly 8,800 cases from the previous day, with the Vietnamese capital Hanoi reporting 8,864 infections, its new daily record.
Currently, mitigating fatalities is the top priority, the health ministry stressed in an official dispatch sent Monday to localities amid increasing new infections and severe cases.
Along with implementing comprehensive treatment, localities were also instructed to accelerate the vaccine rollout, including the additional booster doses for people aged 18 and above, primary doses for those aged 12-17, and preparing resources for inoculating children aged 5-11 as soon as the ministry issues guidelines.
Despite the complicated pandemic developments, the Vietnamese government seems to be steadfast on its opening policy, with resuming in-person classes across the country being encouraged as long as anti-pandemic measures are well ensured.
The country is also working on a more ambitious plan: fully opening its border to international travellers like before the COVID-19 starting March 15, as part of the efforts to revive the tourism industry. As per its announcement, all restrictions on the frequency of both inbound and outbound flights were officially removed from Feb. 15.
Starting November 2021, a number of Vietnamese localities has welcomed foreign tourists under a quarantine-free pilot program, marking the first time international tourism activities being resumed after 20 months. ■
