Vietnam warns of hospitals strain as COVID-19 cases spike after holiday

Vietnam warned on Thursday that its healthcare system could become overloaded, after seeing a surge in new daily coronavirus infections following its week-long Lunar New Year holiday. The Southeast Asian country reported nearly 24,000 new cases on Wednesday, compared to about 15,000 per day in the week before the annual holiday, when millions of people travelled to their rural homes and to tourist hotspots. 'Increased travelling will lead to the risk of more infections among the community, including the risk of spreading the Omicron variant,' the health ministry said in a statement.