#16,946
Due to pandemic fatigue on the part of the public, increased availability of home test kits, and many government's desires to `move on' from the soul crushing daily cycle of `bad news', the reporting of COVID cases around the world has dropped dramatically.
The WHO puts it more diplomatically, in their Weekly COVID Epidemiological Update:
Current trends in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected. Additionally, data from countries are continuously updated by WHO to incorporate changes in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths made by countries retrospectively.
While COVID cases (and deaths) have always been undercounted, today's numbers are probably the least representative since the earliest days of the pandemic. A good example can be seen in the chart above, which shows Vietnam's daily COVID cases averaging less than 1,000 a day for the past 3 months.
Then, two weeks ago, an explosion in cases. On August 4th a `data dump' from the Hai Phong Department of Health spiked that number to over 400,000. Two days later, another release of data from Thai Nguyen added another 154K cases. In between these spikes, the `daily numbers' have dropped down to roughly 2,000 a day.
Vietnam went from having COVID seemingly `under control' to their MOH raising alarm bells today, demanding that local jurisdictions strengthen the management and reporting of COVID-19 cases.
All of this comes as Vietnam is also battling a severe Dengue Outbreak, an unseasonable summer flu outbreak (see Vietnam: Summer Flu Continues - Tamiflu In Short Supply, New Restrictions On Use), and a serious outbreak of HFMD.
First a couple of (translated) announcements from the Vietnamese MOH, after which I'll have a postscript.
Urgent: A series of new variants entered, the Ministry of Health requested to strengthen the management of COVID-19 cases
16/08/2022 | 10:13 AM
In Vietnam, there are a series of fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron, the Ministry of Health has just issued an urgent document requesting to strengthen the management and reporting of COVID-19 cases.
The Department of Preventive Medicine, the Ministry of Health has just sent an urgent document to the Departments of Health of the provinces and cities on strengthening the management and reporting of COVID-19 cases.
According to the Department of Preventive Medicine, the current situation of COVID-19 epidemic is increasing the number of cases in the world and in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the emergence of new sub-variants of the Omicron variant (BA.4, BA.5, BA.2.75, BA.2.12.1) with the ability to spread rapidly, especially in recent times, has been recorded in Vietnam. The country recorded an average of about 2,000 new cases per day, the number of cases is on the rise again.
In Vietnam, there are a series of fast-spreading sub-variants of Omicron, the Ministry of Health has just issued an urgent document requesting to strengthen the management and reporting of COVID-19 cases.
In addition, some localities have announced the number of additional cases with a large number, which leads to not accurately reflecting the epidemic situation, making it difficult to identify, forecast and evaluate the epidemic situation. In order to continue to actively prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic effectively in the near future, the Department of Preventive Medicine, the Ministry of Health proposed the Director of the Department of Health to direct the implementation of a number of contents, specifically:
- Regularly review data and report in a timely manner, not allowing the situation of additional reporting of a large number of cases to lead to not accurately reflecting the epidemic situation, making it difficult to identify, forecast and assess the situation. translation form.
- Continue to declare and obtain patient codes on the Ministry of Health's automatic code-granting system as soon as the test results detect COVID-19 cases.
- Directly monitor and closely follow the epidemic situation in the area, especially the appearance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; regularly assess the level of the epidemic to promptly adjust measures to prevent and control the epidemic according to Resolution 128/NQ-CP; strengthen surveillance, early detection, timely treatment of disease cases, limit cases of severe disease transfer and death.
- Comply with the information reporting regime and fully declare cases of COVID-19 (group A infectious disease) immediately after diagnosis, within 24 hours as prescribed by the Ministry of Health (Department of Health). preventive medicine) to promptly report to the Leaders of the Ministry of Health, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the Prime Minister.
Recently, Hai Phong Department of Health registered an additional 402,830 cases, Thai Nguyen registered an additional 152,485 cases, then Nghe An added more than 4,400 new cases.Since the beginning of the epidemic, Vietnam has 11,367,479 cases of COVID-19, ranking 12th out of 227 countries and territories.
16/08/2022 | 10:11 AM(Excerpts)
According to statistics of the Ministry of Health recently, the number of new cases has increased, severe cases have increased; The Ministry of Health continues to closely monitor the epidemic situation, especially closely monitoring the appearance of new variants of COVID-19
New cases increase, severe cases increase, closely monitor the emergence of new variants of COVID-19
The Ministry of Health said that new COVID-19 cases on August 15 increased to 1,695, an increase of more than 200 cases compared to the previous day. During the day, the number of recovered patients was nearly 6 times higher than that of new cases; Severe patients also increased.
Since the beginning of the epidemic, Vietnam has had 11,367,479 infections, ranking 12/227 countries and territories, while with the rate of infections/1 million people, Vietnam ranks 112/227 countries and territories (on average, there are 114,603 infections for every 1 million people).
To date, the total number of people infected with COVID-19 in the country who have recovered is: 10,029,826 cases; Among the patients being monitored and treated, there are 124 cases of oxygen breathing, including 124 cases, including:
- Breathing oxygen through a mask: 111 cases;
- HFNC high flow oxygen: 4 cases;
- Non-invasive mechanical ventilation: 2 cases;
- Invasive mechanical ventilation: 7 cases.
Recent statistics show that the number of severe cases has increased compared to the previous time, with only more than 20 cases being treated, continuously over the past days, serious patients are being treated often over 100 cases/day;
Unknown, of course, is how many cases have gone reported from Vietnam's other provinces, since it is unlikely Hai Phong and Thai Nguyen were the only jurisdictions to see surges in cases.
Admittedly, Vietnam is far from alone in being unable to track and report cases. And an accurate count was never in the cards. But we do need useful, timely metrics that can inform us on the trajectory of the pandemic.
The problem goes beyond COVID, of course. Since the pandemic began, surveillance and timely reporting on other serious disease outbreaks (avian flu, MERS-CoV, Ebola, etc.) have suffered as well (see Flying Blind In the Age Of Pandemics & Emerging Infectious Diseases).
While much of that can be blamed on a lack of resources, some of it is undoubtedly deliberate.
Negative economic impacts and political considerations - on local, national, and international levels - often outweigh public health concerns, which is why `bad news' is often held close to the vest.
The 2005 IHR (International Health Regulations) requires that all member nations develop mandated surveillance and testing systems and to report certain disease outbreaks and public health events to WHO in a timely manner (see (see Adding Accountability To The IHR).
