HCMC – Vietnam is determined to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from spreading widely and avoid nationwide social distancing, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam stated at a meeting on August 4.
Revealing that the recent situation in Danang City indicated that hospitals have been Covid-19 hotspots, Dam said the health authorities must tighten control over nursing homes and hospitals, especially faculties treating elderly and critical patients, who are the most vulnerable to the pandemic.
Professor Dr. Dang Duc Anh, director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said Danang has performed antibody tests on 5,000 samples of the 7,000 samples collected from quarantine centers and the community. The results showed that Covid-19 broke out again in the city in early July.
Professor Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long, acting Minister of Health, noted that the most recently reported Covid-19 cases are linked to three hospitals in Danang and the pandemic has not spread widely among the community. Besides Danang, the Health Ministry is focusing on the neighboring province of Quang Nam, which is currently also a Covid-19 hot spot in Vietnam.
The national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control said the outbreak in Quang Nam and Danang is being well controlled. However, there would be more locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases in the coming time, as well as more deaths, mainly elderly patients who suffer from other illnesses.
The committee noted that with a population of some 100 million and a border of over 4,000 kilometers, there is always the possibility of new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in the country. Therefore, all citizens, families, organizations and health authorities must always be watchful and strictly comply with Covid-19 infection prevention and control measures.
