During a meeting in Hanoi on February 2, Hue, who is also a Politburo member, asked local agencies and units to consider the fight against the pandemic as the leading and urgent task before, during and after the Tet (Lunar New Year) festival while maintaining production and trade.
He requested to review the efficiency of combating the pandemic from residential areas, villages to the city, while working with units concerned to improve testing capacity.
Hue asked for tracing of close contacts to the confirmed cases more quickly, raising public awareness of preventive principles and strictly punishing violators of prevention and control regulations.
The municipal Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control was assigned to zone off affected and high-risk areas on a larger scale, conduct testing for those coming from pandemic-hit areas and quarantine sites before February 4.
He said vaccination for all Hanoi residents will be reported to the standing board of the municipal Party Committee.
The municipal People’s Committee directed units concerned to calculate the demand for necessities in the city, increase online trade activities, and promptly publicise information related to the pandemic.
* At a meeting of the Ho Chi Minh City Municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on the same day, local authorities also stressed their determination to work hard to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, maintain socio-economic development and ensure a happy Tet for their residents.
Secretary of the Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen said the pandemic is likely to develop more complicatedly and unexpectedly, asking local departments and districts to seriously follow the Government’s instructions in the fight.
He ordered a step up the communications work to raise public awareness of the epidemic and mobilise joint efforts in the combat.
Competent forces were also urged to tighten supervision over transportation activities to curb the COVID-19 spread.
* Speaking at an online meeting with pandemic-hit localities on February 2, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long asked localities to change their tactics and act faster in the prevention and control of COVID-19 as the pandemic is developing complicatedly in a different way from before.
In case that the number of people having contact with COVID-19 patients becomes too large, making it difficult to trace their movements, localities should apply social distancing immediately and take samples for large-scale testing, he said, underlining the need to be faster and take stronger measures to combat the pandemic.
* Against the complicated development of the epidemic, localities across the nation have upgraded their preventive level to a higher grade. The northern province of Quang Ninh required all its residents to complete a health declaration from February 3.
The provincial People’s Committee issued the instruction on February 2, asking people’s committees of districts, townships, and cities to partner with the provincial public security force, health departments, and relevant units to finish the task before February 9.
The public security forces of districts, communes, and townships must work with medical stations to conduct health declarations for those coming from other localities or travelling through pandemic-hit areas from January 15.
The People’s Committee of Dong Trieu Town in Quang Ninh has decided to impose a temporary lockdown on an additional 11 wards and communes from 9:00 am on February 2 until the province issues a new direction.
The lockdown was imposed on the wards of Dong Trieu, Hung Dao, Trang An, Xuan Son, Kim Son, Duc Chinh and Hong Phong, and the communes of Tan Viet, Nguyen Hue, Viet Dan and Binh Khe.
Earlier, Thuy An Commune was placed under quarantine while the communes of Binh Duong and An Sinh are being locked down until February 21.
The same day, Van Don Island District also locked down seven towns and communes from 0:00 am.
* Hai Duong Province, Vietnam’s largest COVID-19 hotspot at present, has received billions of VND together with medical supplies and necessities from a number of donors to help it deal with the COVID-19 resurgence.
On February 2, local property developer Ecopark Hai Duong donated a total of VND12.2 billion in cash and medical supplies to aid the northern province’s COVID-19 response.
The donation includes 10,000 COVID-19 rapid test kits and VND5 billion in cash for the province to build and operate a new wastewater treatment system at its COVID-19 hospital. The company also presented VND200 million to support officers and people stationed at local checkpoints.
On the same day, Dai An JSC handed over 5 billion VND in cash to help the province purchase rapid test kits and 750 aid packages to people in the pandemic-hit commune of Le Loi, in the province’s Chi Linh City. Petrolimex Hai Duong, meanwhile, donated VND50 million and 20,000 medical masks.
A day prior, the provincial Fatherland Front Committee received more than VND4.3 billion in cash alongside necessity goods sent by enterprises and individual donors for its COVID-19 prevention efforts.
The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) donated VND3 billion for the province to procure ambulances and medical equipment while VND1.35 billion was contributed by An Phat Holdings to equip State-designated quarantine camps in Chi Linh, Kinh Mon, and Nam Sach with 100 TV sets and provide meals for around 4,000 quarantined people there for 20 days.
