Prime Minister directs Covid-19 prevention in 5 major cities

Also attending were Deputy Prime Ministers at the Government headquarters' television bridge and local leaders at the bridge points: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho and at centralized quarantine facilities in the area.

In his opening speech, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that the Government Standing Committee organized an online meeting with 5 central cities because these localities, especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, have a large population, high density, and a great need for collective contact. In the past, the 5 cities have done a lot to fight the Covid epidemic, especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have resolutely implemented the Prime Minister's Directive 15, which took effect from 0:00 on March 28, and achieved initial results.

The Prime Minister stated that the next 15 days are the crucial "golden hour" that will decide whether we can prevent the epidemic or not.

At today's meeting, the Prime Minister expressed his wish to hear local reports on specific situations in their areas to check the situation as well as political determination in fighting the epidemic, especially new, more drastic and specific measures.

The Prime Minister asked localities to clarify and give comments to the Government and the National Steering Committee on epidemic prevention measures to solve the problem more closely to reality, "the Central's policy must be close to the grassroots, close to the localities, especially big cities". In fact, localities play a key role in implementing epidemic prevention.

The Prime Minister appreciated the health sector and localities for focusing on treating patients, especially severe cases, with no deaths yet, and requested handling of false information on this issue.

According to the Ministry of Health's report as of 8:00 a.m. this morning, March 29, Vietnam has recorded 5 new cases, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in Vietnam to 179. The world has 662,402 infections, nearly 31,000 deaths.

The epidemic situation continues to be complicated, especially in the United States and European countries.

In the United States, from March 23, 2020 to now, the number of cases has been increasing continuously with more than 10,000 cases per day, of which on March 27 alone, nearly 19,000 new cases were recorded, and the United States became the country with the highest number of cases in the world with more than 100,000 cases. In Europe, in the past week, the number of new cases has fluctuated from 5,000 to 7,000 cases per day in Italy, Germany and Spain.

In Asia, there has been a continued slowdown in the increase in new cases in China and South Korea, with around 30-50 and around 100 new cases per day, respectively, in the past week.

The report said that the epidemic situation in Vietnam has spread in the community and will have complicated developments in the coming time due to cases of disease entering from abroad that have not been screened and detected or cases entering carrying the virus but have no clinical symptoms. The statistical report shows that up to 60.1% have no symptoms when detected, which makes prevention difficult. If the infection coefficient is calculated at 2.5 (1 person infects 2.5 people), the estimated number of Covid-19 infections in the community will be quite high.

Up to now, 34,776 people have been safely quarantined in centralized quarantine areas, 943 people in medical facilities, 39,519 people at home and at their places of residence, not including newly emerging outbreaks.

Bach Mai Hospital was quarantined to prevent the epidemic, March 28. Photo: EVN

Regarding the outbreak at Bach Mai Hospital, the Ministry of Health has quickly deployed many measures to prevent the epidemic. Since March 26, samples have been taken and tested for all medical staff and patients being treated at the hospital. The number of samples screened for SARS-CoV-2 as of 8:00 a.m. on March 27 is 5,419.

Currently, the country has 24 laboratories that are allowed to announce positive cases and screening laboratories. The Ministry of Health has issued laboratory standards; the current capacity is 8,250 samples/day, the number of test reagents is 10,600 tests; has purchased an additional 100,000 tests for distribution early next week and has purchased 200,000 rapid diagnostic reagents from Korea in early April. 20 rapid testing machines have been trained and allocated to units, and 20 more will arrive in the near future out of a total of 100 rapid testing machines requested from sponsoring units. Major cities are focusing on investing in additional testing systems and increasing testing capacity, such as Hanoi, which has reached 2,000 samples/day. Thus, the Ministry of Health affirms that it is basically possible to fully meet testing needs in the coming time.