HCM City Hospital of Tropical Diseases co-ordinated with the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) to conduct gene sequencing on Covid-19 patients between January 11 and March 20. Among five samples that were successfully encoded, two were infected with the Omicron BA.5 sub-variant, one with BA.2.75 and one with XBB.1. The last tested positive for the XBB.1.5 variant, which was the first time this variant had been found in HCM City.
According to the WHO, XBB.1.5 is currently the dominant variant globally which accounted for over 47 percent of cases found in March. XBB.1.5 has been detected in 94 countries.
On April 14, the HCM City Department of Health announced that the city was reporting an average of one Covid-19 infection daily since March. However, the number of cases seemed to rise over the past two days with three infections found on April 12 and seven on April 13.
The Ministry of Health sent out a document on April 12 urging localities to step up Covid-19 prevention measures as the country has reported a sharp rise in the number of infections.
According to the ministry, the country has reported a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases since the beginning of April, with 639 infections confirmed nationwide in a week from April 5-11, a 3.8-fold increase against the previous week.
On April 13, the country reported 497 new infections, up 230 cases from the day earlier.