#Omicron

The General Department of Preventive Medicine announced on August 17 that Vietnam has recorded BA.2.74, a new subvariant of the Omicron strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

Vietnam has yet to discover the emergence of BA.4 and BA.5 – the two sublineages of the Omicron variant following genome sequencing, the Ministry of Health said on April 12 evening.

The Hanoi Department of Health has unveiled that the capital has so far recorded 14 cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic, including one case in the community.

A further 15,954 people across 61 localities nationwide were found to have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a rise of 186 from figures on the previous day, the Ministry of Health reported on January 26.

Ho Chi Minh City has intensified contact tracing after it detected first three Omicron cases in the community.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has sent an urgent telegram requesting relevant agencies to take immediate actions to stop the Omicron outbreak in Quang Nam province after 14 cases were detected in the locality.

After peaking at more than 17,000 cases on December 30, Vietnam’s daily count fell roughly 500 to 16,515 on December 31, the last day of 2021, the Ministry of Health said in its coronavirus update.

PSNews - Recently, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Municipal People's Committee Chu Xuan Dung signed and issued a plan in responding to the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron in the city.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has requested the healthcare sector to closely monitor the Omicron outbreak globally and develop response scenarios if the new variant of coronavirus is reported in Vietnam.

As many as 1,597 foreigners have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City during the past three days, with nine of them testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and no Omicron cases detected.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has requested that the Ministry of Transport (MoT) suspend all flights, including relief flights, both to and from 10 African countries over concerns about the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The Ministry of Health on November 28 announced a number of measures to prevent and control the new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, called Omicron, which was first detected in several South African countries.

Although no Omicron cases have been reported in Vietnam, experts say the local health sector should be highly vigilant against the super-mutated variant that is spreading to a number of countries and territories globally.