Hai Duong: Province-wide social distancing to end on March 3

Pham Xuan Thang, member of the Party Central Committee and Secretary of the Hai Duong provincial Party Committee, speaks at the meeting on March 1 (Photo: VNA)

Hai Duong - The northern province of Hai Duong, the largest hotspot in the latest COVID-19 outbreak, is to end province-wide social distancing measures and lift lockdowns on Chi Linh city and Cam Giang district on March 3.

It will shift to a new status, both drastically fighting the coronavirus and taking action to conduct socio-economic development tasks.

This was decided by the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee at a meeting on March 1 reviewing anti-COVID-19 efforts.

The coronavirus broke out in Hai Duong province on January 27.

The hotspot in Chi Linh has now been eliminated, while the one in Cam Giang district is under control. Relevant forces are also ramping up efforts to address a cluster in Kim Thanh district, which has been sealed off, as soon as possible.

Applauding the province’s sense of responsibility, Tran Nhu Duong, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and head of the Ministry of Health’s working group, pointed out that its greatest success is that there haven’t been any related fatalities, testing capacity has increased dozens of times, and nearly 11,000 groups for COVID-19 monitoring, prevention, and control were set up in the community with the participation of over 25,000 people.

He also warned, however, about a possible resurgence of the virus, and asked the province to view fighting COVID-19 as a regular and ongoing task in the “new normal”.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Xuan Thang said that, from March 3, Hai Duong will carry out 10 groups of anti-COVID-19 solutions and five groups of socio-economic development solutions.

As the outbreak may return, the entire local political system will not lower its guard and will remain on alert and be stringent in the fight, he stated.

As of the afternoon of February 28, Hai Duong had recorded 665 cases of COVID-19 in this new outbreak, with 297 recoveries. More than 16,000 people were sent to concentrated quarantine sites.

Authorities have also strictly dealt with violations of rules on disease prevention and control, imposing fines totalling over 3.4 billion VND (147,000 USD).