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Speaking at an online meeting about disease prevention on July 21, Doctor Nguyen Luong Tam, vice head of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health said that Vietnam was reporting an average of 900 new Covid-19 infections daily but the number seems to have slightly increased in recent days.
"Through gene sequencing results provided by the Pasteur Institute, the BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants have become the dominant forms among new virus cases in Vietnam," he said. "We've also detected another variant, BA.2.12.1."
Attending the meeting, the deputy director of HCM City's Pasteur Institute Nguyen Vu Thuong warned that data showed that the BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 subvariants substantially escape neutralising antibodies so it was necessary to ensure preventive measures and speed up vaccination.
As of July 21, Vietnam reported a total of over 10.76 million Covid-19 infection cases and over 9.83 million have recovered from the disease. The country has so far administered over 241 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.