Laos has confirmed 75 new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 2,976.
Dr. Lattanaxay Phetsouvanh led the daily briefing by the National Taskforce, saying that 1,888 tests had been conducted over the past 24 hours.
Of the new cases confirmed, Vientiane Capital saw six imported cases, Khammouane saw one imported case, Savannakhet recorded seven imported cases, while Champasack confirmed 61 new imported cases.
No cases of community spread were recorded throughout the country.
The country now has 726 active cases, with 32 recent recoveries.
Dr. Lattanaxay said that 2,773 people had entered the country, with all people being screened for Covid symptoms and sent to one of 48 quarantine centers around the country.
He said that the Delta variant is much more transmissible than other variants and spreads 1.4 times faster than the Alpha variant, with worse symptoms.
The variant has now mutated into another, similar strain, called Delta plus.
The rapid spread and stronger symptoms of new variants of Covid-19 has caused many countries to reconsider opening up or returning to lockdown. The closure of countries around the world has caused laborers to return home, posing a risk to home countries that new variants could spread in the community, according to Dr. Lattanaxay.
