ADDIS ABABA, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign to boost inoculations and control the spread of the pandemic.

       State-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate, citing Dereje Duguma, Ethiopia's State Minister of Health, reported on Saturday that the number of infected people who are going to the Intensive Care Unit has been increasing over the past month in Ethiopia.

       The state minister said that the dynamic nature of the virus coupled with lax precautionary measures by citizens are the major factors exacerbating the infection rate during the past month.

       The East African country, which has so far administered more than 29.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, reported 736 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the national count to 477,742 as of Saturday as the death toll stood at 7,516, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.