HCMC – The lockdown on the 15th floor of the Carillon Apartment Building’s Block F on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Tan Binh District, the last location that was on lockdown in HCMC, was lifted on February 23. Thus, the lockdowns in all 33 areas in the city have been lifted.
Nguyen Khac Nguyen, chairman of Ward 13, Tan Binh District, where the apartment building is located, said the move was made after all residents on the 15th floor had tested negative for Covid-19, the local media reported.
Block F was blocked from February 9 as a Covid-19 patient, who is an employee of Vietnam Airlines, lives there. Three people living in the same apartment with the patient were placed under quarantine at the Cu Chi Field Hospital, 26 others who had indirect contact with the patient were quarantined at home and all residents of the apartment building had their samples taken for Covid-19 testing.
The city has passed 13 consecutive days without new local infections and has basically controlled the infection cluster at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport.
However, the situation in other parts of the country remains complicated. The risk of community transmission is still high in the city as there are big numbers of people traveling from other localities to the city after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the municipal Center for Disease Control.
From February 16, the city asked those coming to the city to make health declarations and randomly tested those at the Mien Dong Coach Station, the Saigon Railway Station, the Tan Son Nhat International Airport and boarding houses. Those from coronavirus-hit areas in Haiphong, Hai Duong and Hung Yen have been quarantined and tested.
The city is treating 43 Covid-19 patients and quarantining nearly 1,400 people in centralized quarantine centers and 571 others at home. The municipal Department of Health has come up with three response plans to combat the pandemic. In the worst-case scenario, the city will have 500 patients and some 2,800 people who are suspected of being infected with the disease.
