HANOI, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) — Vietnam reported 15,270 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 15,267 locally transmitted and three imported, according to its Ministry of Health.

Most of the community cases were recorded in southern localities, including 1,339 in Ca Mau province, 1,175 in Ho Chi Minh City, and 880 in Binh Phuoc province.

On Thursday, the health authority also documented 18,792 cases detected earlier in southern Tay Ninh province.

The infections brought the country’s total tally to 1,493,237 with 28,857 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, as many as 1,064,461 patients have so far recovered, up 1,033 from Wednesday.

Over 135.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 59.4 million second shots, have been administered, according to the ministry.

Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication, and infectivity. As of Thursday, the country has registered nearly 1.5 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, the ministry said.

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