HANOI, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam reported 16,515 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including 16,476 locally transmitted and 39 imported, according to its Ministry of Health.

The Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the locality with the highest number of infections with 1,914 cases, followed by southern Vinh Long province with 1,080 cases and southern Ca Mau province with 1,063 cases.

The infections brought the country's total tally to 1,731,257 with 32,394 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, as many as 1,355,286 COVID-19 patients have so far recovered, up 18,642 from Thursday.

Some 150.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 68.4 million second shots, have been administered, according to the ministry.

Vietnam has by far gone through four coronavirus waves of increasing scale, complication, and infectivity. As of Friday, the country has registered over 1.7 million locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, the ministry said.