Vigilance against COVID-19 still needed: meeting

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has contained well the
COVID-19 pandemic but yet to win over it, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc
Dam, head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and
Control, said at a meeting of the committee in Hanoi on May 21.

Along with the world, the fight against the pandemic may
last long, and Vietnam must be always in the readiness status, the Deputy PM
stressed.

said more
than 5 million cases, including 325,000 deaths, have been recorded in
215 countries and territories nationwide.

In Southeast Asia, there are 72,600 cases and nearly
2,300 fatalities. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Timor-Leste have so far reported
no deaths caused by the acute respiratory disease.

Vietnam has gone 35 straight days without community
infections and the national count remains at 324, Long told the meeting.

The British man, designated as Patient 91 who is being
treated at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, has tested negative for
SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease, for six times, and
his lung function has improved as compared with the previous days.

Regarding Flight VN001 from the US to Hanoi on May 16,
Long said the test results of all 25 crew members came out negative.

All of the 299 passengers returning from Thailand on
May 18 have also been put under quarantine at concentrated facilities and their
test results were negative, the official added.

Although no community infections have been recorded
over the past 35 days, competent forces have still maintained their active
response and vigilance against the epidemic, Long said.

Committee members shared the views on the risk of
transmission from Vietnamese returning from abroad, foreign experts and
labourers, diplomatic and official passport holders, crew members and residents
travelling through borders.

They, therefore, urged the Ministry of Transport and
localities to continue tightening control over passengers entering Vietnam, and
seriously observe quarantine regulations.

Local authorities and the public security sector have
to guide the grant of visas for foreigners and prepare quarantine facilities,
they said./.