Vice State President visits COVID-19 control forces along southwestern border

Visiting sea border checkpoints No 47 and 50 and land border checkpoint No 42 under the Border Post of the Ha Tien International Border Gate, Xuan lauded the efforts of border guards in overcoming the difficulties to complete their mission and contribute to controlling COVID-19.

At a working session with Kien Giang leaders in Ha Tien city on the same day, the Vice State President hailed the province’s effective measures to efficiently control COVID-19, thus keeping the locality free from the pandemic so far.

She asked Kien Giang to be more active in allocating means and forces for COVID-19 prevention and control in order to implement the “dual target” of controlling the pandemic and ensuring economic development and social welfare.

The locality should further strengthen its coordination with other provinces and forces based in the province and the region to ensure smooth and effective operations in all circumstances, she said.

She also advised the province to remain abreast of directions from central agencies regarding pandemic prevention and control while flexibly conducting exchanges with border guard forces in neighbouring countries and preventing the spread of the pandemic via borders.

Kien Giang should also pay greater attention to the care of officials and soldiers operating along the border, she added.

According to Vice Chairman of the Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Luu Trung, the province has tightened its management of border gates and border crossings while allocating more personnel to sea and land border posts.

The province has arranged 144 checkpoints and 24 mobile teams for pandemic prevention and control, while managing people returning from pandemic-hit areas and coordinating with other localities to identify people with close contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients and conduct COVID-19 testing, he said.

Trung said that, currently, the province can test 1,700 samples a day. It has so far recorded no COVID-19 cases in the community.

Earlier, on June 7, Xuan held a working session in the province’s Giang Thanh district, focusing on measures to improve the living conditions of local people in border areas. On the occasion, she presented the province with five respirators along with facemasks and gifts for policy beneficiaries and poor households. She also presented VND200 million to children impacted by COVID-19.