Hai Duong urged to implement COVID-19 combat measures on wider scale

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long speaks at the conference (Photo: VNA)

Hai Duong – Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long has ordered the northern province of Hai Duong – Vietnam’s recent hotspot of COVID-19 outbreaks – considering implementing the Prime Minister’s Decree 16/CT-TTg on a wider scale to avoid getting behind developments of the pandemic.

Long made the request at an online conference co-organised by the ministry and local authorities to direct COVID-19 prevention and control work across the province.

Decree 16/CT-TTg focuses on deploying urgent and drastic COVID-19 prevention and control measures.

Also at the conference, the minister praised local efforts to mobilize its entire political system and people in fighting the pandemic in a short time and to promptly lockdown Chi Linh city and Cam Giang district under the decree.

He envisaged the local COVID-19 situation to be further complicated and prolonged and urged the province to make all-out efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

He recommended letting the army monitor concentrated quarantine sites for tightened discipline in a bid to deter cross infections.

Long asked the local police to tightly manage people’s self-quarantine at residential areas in line with the ministry’s regulations.

He stated the ministry will continue offering more assistance to Hai Duong.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Xuan Thang said Hai Duong is now capable of collecting 30,000 samples for COVID-19 testing daily.

He added that the locality's major tasks are to control cross infections at quarantine sites, further speed up sample collection process, and direct prevention and control work at industrial parks.

Thang said the provincial Party Committee’s standing board will hold a meeting to issue specific directions focusing on wider-scale implementation of Decree 16, prioritising testing at quarantine sites and increasing personnel for pandemic prevention in Cam Giang district.

He proposed the ministry increase capacity of the COVID-19 treatment hospital at the Hai Duong Medical Technical University Hospital to 600 beds and quickly aid the province in establishing testing facilities in Chi Linh, Cam Giang, and at the university hospital.

Deputy head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Tran Nhu Duong said the key work for Hai Duong is to prevent and control the pandemic at industrial parks, particularly in Cam Giang which is home to 60,000 workers.

According to the provincial centre for disease prevention and control, as of February 14, Hai Duong recorded a total of 461 COVID-19 cases, with 31 cases posted on the day.

To date, the province has collected more than 90,400 samples and saw 55 patients fully recovered.