HCMC – As Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has begun spreading in the community, it is necessary to stay on high alert for the disease, the national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control said at a meeting on April 8, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam as the head of the committee.
The committee’s members said that even though many strong measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus have been adopted, the disease has started to spread in the community.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicated that among the 251 confirmed cases in Vietnam so far, 156 returned from abroad, accounting for 62.6% of the total, and the remaining 95 caught the virus from the infected.
The steering committee asked the relevant agencies and localities to continue monitoring individuals who have visited health care facilities for medical exams after presenting some symptoms of the disease and to continue doing contact tracing.
The committee also reiterated the strategy in the fight against the virus, which includes preventing new infections; detecting and quarantining new cases as soon as possible, locking down the community where infections are detected, and suppressing transmission, the local media reported.
It is vital to find the source of infections, apart from identifying each infected case in a cluster, to promptly prevent further infections.
The steering committee said that provinces and cities and other agencies should take stronger measures and not tolerate complacency in the fight against Covid-19.
Associate Professor Dr Tran Dac Phu, former head of the General Department of Preventive Medicine, pointed out that the original sources of infection in some cases, including the 243rd, 247th and 251st, remain unknown, proving that community spread has emerged.
Phu proposed continuing to practice social distancing to prevent virus transmission in the community and to adopt drastic measures to break the transmission.
Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Son stated that police forces will continue collaborating with the health sector to do contact tracing.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen also proposed tracing all foreigners staying at lodging facilities in Vietnam and all Vietnamese nationals who are working directly with foreigners from coronavirus-hit countries and territories, to undergo health checks.
