HANOI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) — Vietnam reported 15,527 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, including 15,522 locally transmitted and five imported, according to its Ministry of Health.

Most of the community cases were recorded in southern localities, including 1,270 in Ho Chi Minh City, 1,072 in Ca Mau province, and 1,035 in Ben Tre province.

The infections brought the country’s total tally to 1,459,175 with 28,616 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, as many as 1,063,428 COVID-19 patients have so far recovered, up 2,992 from Tuesday.

Over 135 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 59 million second shots, have been administered.

Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication, and infectivity. As of Wednesday, the country has registered more than 1.45 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April.

[embedpost slug = “/fans-face-vaccine-checks-as-premier-league-battles-covid-wave-2/”]