South Korea donates additional Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam

The donation came as South Korea's full vaccination rate topped 70 per cent of the population. PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL (XINHUA) - South Korea has decided to donate an additional 290,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Vietnam, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Thursday (Nov 4).

South Korea provided 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines for Vietnam and 470,000 doses of the vaccines for Thailand on Oct 12, while donating one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Iran on Oct 25.

The Seoul ministry said in a statement that the additional donation would contribute to the improved friendly ties between South Korea and Vietnam and the global efforts to tackle the Covid-19 crisis.

Vietnam reported 6,192 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, including 6,175 locally transmitted and 17 imported, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

Most of the community cases were detected in southern localities, including 985 in Ho Chi Minh City, 905 in Dong Nai province, and 773 in Binh Duong province.

The donation came as South Korea's full vaccination rate topped 70 per cent of the population, a major precondition set by the government to ease antivirus measures.

In the latest tally, the country administered Covid-19 vaccines to 80.5 per cent of the population, with 75.9 per cent being fully vaccinated.

South Korea reported 2,482 more Covid-19 cases as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 373,120.

The daily caseload was down from 2,667 the previous day, but it has been hovering above 1,000 since July 7.

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area. Of the new cases, 944 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people residing in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 868 and 168, respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 477, or 19.4 per cent of the total local transmission.

Twenty-five cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 15,174.

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