He noted that party chiefs and chairmen of cities and provinces are responsible for the situation in their own localities.

Chinh said records showed that a lot of people in Da Nang City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Khanh Hoa Province had broken Covid-19 preventative regulations in the last few days. Meanwhile, Dong Thap, Vinh Long and Tien Giang provinces have been slow in establishing Covid-19 testing facilities.

"If we are careless, we will have to pay high prices in terms of human lives, money losses, development opportunities, and reputation."

After over a month without new community transmission cases, 24 have been found since Thursday in four localities including 12 in Ha Nam Province, six in Vinh Phuc Province, three in Hanoi, two in Hung Yen Province, all in the north, and one in Ho Chi Minh City.

The six cases in Vinh Phuc are female staff of Sunny Dong Son bar in northern Vinh Phuc Province. They came in close contact with five Chinese experts, four of whom were confirmed positive for the coronavirus after returning to China.

Upon entering Vietnam, the Chinese experts were sent to 14-day centralized quarantine in Yen Bai Province. After completing their centralized quarantine period and testing negative thrice, the group continued to have their health monitored for 14 days at Bao Yen Hotel in Yen Bai under supervision of local medical staff. However, the experts had left their hotel and visited many localities like Lao Cai, Vinh Phuc, Lai Chau and Yen Bai provinces, all in northern Vietnam.

The remaining cases in Ha Nam, Hanoi, Hung Yen and HCMC are all linked to a Ha Nam man who returned from Japan and tested positive after completing his two-week centralized quarantine in Da Nang City. This man failed to quarantine himself in Ha Nam for another 14 days as required.

The resurgence of community transmissions came as Vietnamese are undertaking the four-day holiday that began on Friday, seeing top tourist destinations in Vietnam overrun by holiday crowds.

Vietnam’s Covid-19 tally of 2,962 cases to date includes 2,549 recoveries and 35 deaths.