A Covid-19 checkpoint in Binh Thanh District, HCMC.
Photo by HCMC Center for Disease Control.
 

Vietnam recorded 96 more local Covid-19 cases Thursday noon in five localities including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. 

55 cases were recorded in the northern province of Bac Giang, 14 in its neighbor Bac Ninh, 19 in HCMC, six in Hanoi and two in Long An Province that borders HCMC.

All the cases in Bac Giang are associated with the province's industrial parks and other locked down areas. They have been quarantined prior to test results.

The cases in HCMC are linked to the Revival Ekklesia Mission, a self-described Christian congregation whose several members and others associated with them are infected with the coronavirus. The new cases raised HCMC's infection tally in the fourth wave to 277, including over 260 linked to the religious mission. The city has tracked down around 300,000 people who have had direct or indirect contacts with infectees in the cluster.

All the cases in Bac Ninh and Hanoi have also made contact with confirmed Covid-19 patients and been quarantined.

The two cases in Long An Province are a 4-year-old son of a couple previously confirmed as Covid-19 patients, and his grandmother. The couple are linked to the HCMC mission cluster.

Vietnam was hit by a new Covid-19 wave more than five weeks ago and 4,877 infections have since then been recorded in 37 of its 63 cities and provinces.

Bac Giang and Bac Ninh now have the highest number of infections, at 2,620 and 941.