Vietnam imposes lockdown in city, as Covid cases continue to surge in Asean
The ongoing surge in Covid cases across Southeast Asia continued unabated on Friday, although the number of deaths declined, collated data showed.
Asean reported 69,472 new cases on Friday, higher than Thursday's 66,286, though deaths were lower at 1,189, from Thursday’s 1,334.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the region crossed 5.38 million, while the death toll has risen to 103,557.
Indonesia's public health minister said that the Moderna vaccine would arrive on Sunday and would be distributed starting next week at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's medical association reported that 210 doctors have died due to Covid-19 from January to July 9 this year. Of these, 20 had received two doses of Sinovac, prompting the association to express concerns over the vaccine’s efficacy.
Vietnam’s government announced a two-week lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City which has a population of over 9 million. People are only allowed to leave their homes to buy food, drugs and for emergency reasons. Service and manufacturing industries are allowed to continue but all public transport has been suspended. The government’s decision came after the country saw over 1,000 new cases on four consecutive days, most of which were from HCM City and were the Delta variant of the virus.
