Border guards on patrol in Dong Thap (Photo: VNA) City (VNS/VNA) – provinces are tightening preventive
measures against the COVID-19 , especially along land borders and
coastal entry points, after two new cases were reported in the region.
On
February 28, a 37-year-old man in Hau Giang province who worked aboard a barge
bringing cargo from Cambodia’s Phnom Penh tested positive and was quarantined
immediately.
He
had arrived along with another man at the Thuong Phuoc International Sea Port
in Dong Thap’s Hong Ngu district on February 26.
Authorities
have identified three people who came into close contact with the patient.
Earlier,
on February 23, the province’s COVID-19 task force quarantined a
Vietnamese woman who had entered illegally from Cambodia with the disease. Authorities traced 11 people who had been in contact with her.
Chairman
of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Thien Nghia has instructed relevant
agencies to tighten control over border and coastal entry points.
They
should exchange information with their counterparts in neighbouring countries
to make plans to preclude the spread of the disease, he said.
Border
guards should set up a hotline for locals to report people coming from
COVID-hit areas, he added.
Vice
Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Doan Tan Buu said everyone
entering from Cambodia have to be quarantined and tested.
The
People’s Committee has approved the suspension of festivals and other events
and closure of amusement places in Hong Ngu and Tan Hong districts and Hong Ngu
city.
Educational
establishments will be closed from March 1 to 6.
At
the border in the provinces of Long An, An Giang and Kien Giang, soldiers are
on duty on 24 hours a day at temporary checkpoints.
Nguyen
Van Ut, Chairman of the Long An Provincial People’s Committee, has instructed
border guards to tighten control, warning that a single person could
spread the disease if not quarantined in time.
The
province is seeking the private sector’s assistance to provide border
guards with all the daily necessities they need, he added.
Lam
Minh Thanh, Chairman of the Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee, said
relevant agencies have been instructed to ensure border guards get good mental
and physical care to reassure them.
The
province has received 80 soldiers from Da Nang city and Binh Dinh province for
COVID prevention duty at coastal entry points.
It
has 80 checkpoints at land and sea, and 11 boats patrol its coast to prevent
, smuggling and illegal entrants.
Between
February 24 and 26 more than 150 people entered the province through the Ha Tien
city land border, and all were quarantined and tested.
Border
guards and other authorities disinfect goods brought in from Cambodia and
transfer them to local vehicles for onward transport.
An
Giang province is doing the same thing. Its People’s Committee
plans to set up several task force teams to patrol the border.
Tran
Hong Quan, Vice Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People’s Committee, said
though the province does not share land borders with other countries, its
coastal waters are bordered by other countries, a cause for worry, and has
instructed relevant agencies to be on high alert.
On
March 1 health officials began to test employees of enterprises who are from
other provinces.
All
businesses with such employees would be tested, Quan added./.
Source: VietnamPlus
