Vietnam reported 737 deaths due to the coronavirus on Sunday, a new single-day record as the country also saw an extreme high of new cases counted in a single day, despite strict virus prevention protocols enforced nationwide, health authorities said.

The new deaths brought the overall toll in the country to 8,277.

On Sunday, Vietnam reported 11,214 new cases, short of the 11,321 new cases on Saturday, which set a record. That is around eight times the number of cases recorded during all of 2020, according to the Ministry of Health.

As of Sunday, Vietnam has recorded 348,059 coronavirus cases, ranking it 68th among 222 countries and territories.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest city and the centre of Vietnam's fourth coronavirus wave, has so far recorded 175,994 local cases and 6,538 deaths.

The city has extended a stay-at-home order until Sept. 15, taking effect on Monday. The city's COVID-19 death toll is also soaring.

Authorities in the capital, Hanoi, also extended social-distancing measures for two more weeks on Friday, as local transmissions of the coronavirus continued to rise.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Sunday ordered COVID-19 tests for the entire population of Ho Chi Minh City and sent the military to dispense food because the national daily tally of new cases exceeded 10,000 for the past days.

Vietnam has administered a single COVID-19 vaccine dose to more than 17 million people, out of a total population of 98 million.

Nearly 1.8 million people have been fully vaccinated, amounting to just 1.8% of the population.