As many as 1,597 foreigners have arrived in Ho Chi Minh City during the past three days, with nine of them testing positive for the SARS-C-V-2 virus and no Omicron cases detected, said the Ho Chi Minh City City Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control at a meeting on Monday. Genome sequencing shows all nine foreigners have been infected with the common Delta strain, not Omicron, said Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, an official of the HCM City Department of Health, playing down worried about a possibility of a new virus outbreak in the city.

Ho Chi Minh City is currently the largest coronavirus hotspot in Vietnam as it has so far confirmed nearly 500,000 infections or around one third of the country’s total. It has tightened COVID-19 prevention and control measures at all border gates to prevent Omicron penetrate its territory. First detected in South Africa not long ago, the new variant has bene found in more than 60 countries and territories across the globe, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: VOV5