Asean Covid cases continue at above 98,000 for third day in a row
Southeast Asia reported over 98,000 new Covid-19 cases for the third consecutive day and a new high in fatalities on Friday, collated data showed.
Asean countries saw 98,742 new cases on Friday, higher than Thursday’s 98,020, while deaths rose to 2,869, from 2,867 the previous day.
Total Covid-19 cases in the region crossed 7.2 million and the death toll rose to 145,096.
The Vietnam government has announced a plan to increase vaccination rate to cover 70 per cent of the nine million population of Ho Chi Minh City within next month as well as build more field hospitals, as the number of new infections with the delta variant of the virus in the city has been climbing rapidly. Currently Ho Chi Minh City has a vaccination rate of 70,000 to 80,000 doses per day.
Cambodia on Friday received 455,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine donated by the United States. The vaccine is the first lot of a total 7 million doses that Cambodia will receive under the Covax programme, which will be delivered within this year. So far Cambodia has been providing jabs to adults aged over 18 years and will start giving vaccine to those aged 12 to 17 years starting next month.