Ho Chi Minh City on right track in COVID-19 fight: official

The affirmation was made during an online meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and the city’s leading officials on July 11.

Along with intensifying dissemination to make locals abide by regulations and punishment of any violations, Deputy PM Dam stressed that the biggest goal after the social distancing is to define districts, wards and communes that are safe in order to turn them into a new normal as soon as possible.

To that end, all the work, especially epidemiological investigation and testing, must be conducted quickly and surely.

He asked the city to improve the testing capacity, and conduct testing at home for people with COVID-19 symptoms, the elderly and those with underlying diseases.

Municipal authorities were also required to pay more attention to locals, particularly the poor and the homeless, with the aim of leaving no one short of food.

The official highly valued the city’s efforts to ensure environmental sanitation, including the treatment of medical waste, requesting extra efforts to solve shortcomings in this field.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that on July 10, the largest and most populous city of Vietnam recorded 1,403 new COVID-19 infections, mostly in quarantine sites and locked-down areas.

The city has put into operation new concentrated quarantine sites, hospitals for COVID-19 treatment, as well as wards dedicated to treating critical patients, he stated.

The city leader affirmed that the volume of goods at supermarkets and convenience stores remain stable.

Since July 6, the city has provided support for 45,000 locals, and carried a support package worth nearly VND 900 billion (US$ 39.2 million).