On Monday, the city recorded 3,341 new Covid-19 cases, 53 percent of which were community transmissions. But just a day after, the figure rose to 72.5 percent, with 2,568 out of 3,540 new cases being recorded within the community.

In Binh Thanh District, Tuesday saw 345 new cases, the highest number of infections among all districts. A total 310 of those cases were detected either in the community or at people visiting hospitals, accounting for nearly 90 percent of cases in the district on that day.

In Tan Binh District, 259 out of 332 cases detected within the day were community transmissions, accounting for 78 percent.

District 3 in the downtown saw nearly 82 percent of its new cases being detected in the community, with that figure 98 percent in the outlying Hoc Mon District.

The same thing panned out in other districts like Binh Tan, Go Vap, Districts 1, 4, 8, 10 and 12, with the number of community transmission cases surging and overtaking those recorded within locked down areas.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, chairman of the municipal People's Committee, on Monday said cases have been on the rise among the community lately, instead of being usually detected within quarantine zones and locked down areas. He did not provide a reason to explain the rise of infections.

For over a month now, HCMC, with 21 districts and Thu Duc City, has been the epicenter of the ongoing Covid-19 wave that began in late April.

It has recorded 156,186 local Covid-19 cases ever since the fourth coronavirus wave hit Vietnam in late April, with the number of deaths recorded in the thousands.

The southern city has undergone a series of Covid-19 social distancing orders for nearly three months, with the latest one having been extended until Sept. 15.