Vietnam has recorded 111 more Covid-19 infection cases, raising the Wednesday counts to 178 and the total number of patients in the country to 4,690, the Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday evening.

 A health worker takes samples for Covid-19 testing in Ho Chi Minh City

Earlier the same day, 67 new patients were announced in the ministry's morning and noon reports.

According to the ministry's evening report, 109 out of the 111 newly-confirmed patients are locally-transmitted cases most of whom were detected in quarantine sites or areas under lockdown in some northern and central cities and provinces, including 78 in Bac Giang, 21 in Bac Ninh, six in Dien Bien, two in Danang, and one each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The 78 cases in Bac Giang were recorded at some industrial parks of Van Trung, Dinh Tram, Song Khe-Noi Hoang, and Quang Chau which have reported a large outbreak over the last few days. Local authorities have decided to temporarily close these four industrial parks since Tuesday for Covid-19 prevention and control.

As of Wednesday evening, 1,647 locally-transmitted cases have been reported since the new outbreak occurred in the country on April 27. The outbreak has so far spread to 29 cities and provinces nationwide.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 4,690, including 3,217 locally-transmitted cases.

As of 6 pm on May 19, a total of 2,687 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital.

So far there have been 37 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 121, 000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.

On May 18, an additional 5,979 people were given Covid-19 vaccine in Vietnam, raising the total number of vaccinated people in the country to 1,011,395 including 28,852 people having received two doses.