Doctors at a Covid-19 field hospital in HCMC, July 2021.
Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa. 

The Health Ministry announced 905 local Covid-19 cases Wednesday morning in 15 localities, putting the infection number in the ongoing wave at 31,839. 

In southern Vietnam, epicenter Ho Chi Minh City recorded 666 cases, including 458 in quarantined zones and areas under lockdown. The sources of transmission of the remaining 208 are still unknown.

Its neighbor Dong Nai Province got 80 cases, including 43 cases related to a cluster at Hoa An market in Bien Hoa Town, 23 in isolated areas, nine returning from HCMC and five are being contact traced.

Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre reported 43 cases, with 30 cases having made contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases, 12 linked to Binh Dien wholesale market in HCMC's District 8 and one returning from Long An Province that borders HCMC.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, another's HCMC neighbor, got 19 cases, with 17 linked to existing cases and two being contact traced.

Vinh Long Province in the Mekong Delta recorded 17, with 16 related to previously confirmed cases and one returning from HCMC.

Tay Ninh Province also got four cases: one related to a previously confirmed patient, one linked to the Binh Dien wholesale market in HCMC, and two are being contacted traced.

Mekong Delta's Kien Giang and Tien Giang provinces reported two cases each. In Kien Giang, they are people returning from HCMC while one case in An Giang is linked to a patient and one is being contact traced.

The one case in the delta's Soc Trang Province is a man back from HCMC.

In central Vietnam, Khanh Hoa Province registered 44 cases that are all associated with a previously confirmed patient, Phu Yen Province reported 18 cases that have already been isolated prior to their test results, while Ninh Thuan Province detected four cases, with three associated with a previously confirmed patient and one returning Dong Nai Province.

The two cases in Hue are both linked to an existing case and one case was recorded in Binh Dinh Province.

In northern Vietnam, Bac Ninh Province recorded two cases linked to clusters at industrial parks.

Since the new wave of Covid-19 emerged in Vietnam on April 27, the nation has recorded community infections in 58 cities and provinces. HCMC has the highest number of cases, 17,239.

More than four million people of the nation's 96 million have been vaccinated against Covid-19, and 283,884 have got two doses.