Vietnam taps private hospitals as Delta-driven COVID-19 infections rise

HANOI: Vietnam's health ministry issued an urgent appeal on Friday for private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients as the Southeast Asian country battles a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has been facing record daily increases in infections since late April. It has detected a total of 137,000 cases, 85% of which were recorded over the past month. "The Delta variant is destroying all anti-pandemic achievements," health minister Nguyen Thanh Long told a cabinet meeting on Friday.