Nearly 119,000 new cases detected, PM proposes considering COVID-19 as endemic disease

The Health Ministry announced a further 118,790 new COVID-19 patients on March 3 across all 63 cities and provinces, posting an increase of 8,500 cases from the previous day.

Hanoi capital led with 18,661 new cases, followed by Nghe An and Bac Ninh with 6,152 and 5,648, respectively.

In the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry reported that an additional 95 COVID-19 patients died, including 20 in Hanoi. The average death toll per day in Vietnam in the last seven days was 95.

Since the pandemic began last year, the death toll in Vietnam has climbed to 40,547, or 1.1% of all infections.

In the latest wave that hit the country in late April, more than 3.87 million cases have been confirmed, and over 2.54 million of them have recovered from the virus.

As of March 2, a total of 376,284 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered, bringing the total number of inoculated vaccine doses to over 195.6 million.

During a cabinet meeting held on the same day, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that Vietnam will refer to international experience to take appropriate and effective measures towards normalization with the epidemic, thereby considering COVID-19 as an endemic disease.

He emphasized the need to continue effectively controlling the epidemic and asked the Ministry of Health to accurately assess the situation and study protective antibodies against the virus nationwide.

According to the Ministry of Health, a recent survey stated that the rate of Vietnamese people satisfied with the Government's pandemic prevention and control measures was at 96%.

However, the Ministry of Health predicts that the pandemic will continue to develop in a complicated manner in the future. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries believe that it is impossible to control COVID-19 before 2023 amid the new Omicron strain and other viral strains which cause many unforeseen risks.