HCMC – Vietnam’s Covid tally has risen to over 10.62 million after the Ministry of Health confirmed 8,431 new infections today, April 26, with all of them being locally-infected.

The new cases, up by more than 1,000 cases over yesterday, were reported in 56 cities and provinces. Hanoi still recorded the highest number of new cases, at 937, followed by Phu Tho with 702 and Quang Ninh with 408. Other localities had fewer than 400 cases each. The Hanoi Department of Health also registered to add 40,000 earlier-detected cases to the national Covid monitoring system. Today, eight Covid deaths were confirmed in six provinces. Meanwhile, nearly 23,500 patients were declared free from the disease. Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said today that health declarations will be suspended soon and the General Department of Preventive Medicine is drawing up guidelines on the suspension. At a teleconference with localities today, Long said Vietnam is no longer tracing those in contact with Covid cases and is returning to a normal life, so making health declarations is no longer necessary. Since the start of the Covid pandemic, making health declarations is among the five simple but effective anti-pandemic measures. The Ministry of Health is also mulling removing Covid from the list of class A infectious diseases, which are extremely dangerous.