HCMC – Nguyen Van Nen, secretary of the HCMC Party Committee, has ordered the local competent agencies to zone off Covid-19-hit areas on an extended scale before gradually reducing the scale as the sources of infection of many cases in the city remain unknown.
At a meeting between the municipal steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control and districts on May 27 after the city detected 25 new Covid-19 cases linked to the Revival Ekklesia Mission, a religious sect in Go Vap District, Nen said this outbreak was large and the transmission speed of the coronavirus from this outbreak was high, Phap Luat newspaper reported.
Therefore, the area under lockdown should be larger as the tracing work has yet to be completed.
He also called on local residents to stay calm and on high alert to support the fight against the pandemic in the city.
The municipal Party chief also asked for strict compliance with lockdown regulations in pandemic-stricken and adjacent areas. The entire political system in the city must consider the fight against Covid-19 as the top priority.
At the meeting, HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong asked the municipal healthcare sector to determine the sources of infection and tighten control over religious sites, apartment buildings and high-rise buildings.
He also assigned the Department of Health to propose the scale and period to impose social distancing in high-risk areas, such as the residences and workplaces of Covid-19 patients.
This Covid-19 wave may last longer than the previous ones and many Covid-19 patients may not be detected as the sources of infection of a food vendor in District 3 and members of the Revival Ekklesia Mission remain unknown, Phong noted.
Nguyen Tri Dung, director of the HCMC Center for Disease Control, said 24 people registered to become members of the religious sect and could have taken their family members to its meetings.
The F0 and F1 cases linked to the religious sect have been found in 16 districts in the city.
