Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son talks to the infected person who stays at the quarantine area of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City over the phone. (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – has vowed to stem the spread of the new
coronavirus () and that no one would die from the virus in the city, said
Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem on February 9.
He made the
statement while meeting with a Ministry of Health working team, led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son.
As HCM City
faces a high risk of the nCoV spread, the city has deployed various precautious
measures to control the epidemic, Liem said.
The city have
requested departments and agencies as well as 24 districts to develop their own plan to respond to the real situation, he
emphasised.
Despite being
a huge, densely-populated metropolis with a large number of foreigners coming
in and out, the city is keeping the situation under control with no case of human-to-human transmission
reported so far, the leader
said.
Deputy
Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son welcomed the city’s effort to contain the
outbreak, saying its preventive measures have proved effective. Besides three
people infected with the virus after returning from China’s epidemic-hit areas, the city has no new
infection.
However, Son
voiced his worry over the fact that there are only two quick response teams in each
district of the city which he said is not enough. He suggested the city to add more of such teams to create a
greater barrier against the virus.
“Ho Chi Minh
City needs to increase the number of quick response teams, build more quarantine areas for suspected cases at district-level hospitals and minimise the transfer
of the suspected cases to higher-level hospitals that can cause overloads and in-hospital
infection,” the deputy
minister said.
Assoc. Prof,
Dr. Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the municipal Department of Health, said three
people so far have been confirmed to carry the new coronavirus in the city, one
of who has been discharged from hospital; 27 suspected cases have been tested negative with the virus.
Local
hospitals have monitored 39 people who had had close contact with the infected
persons, he said, adding that the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City
have admitted 44 suspected cases, including one confirmed infection.
The city plans to inaugurate an acute respiratory disease hospital on February 10 to prepare the city
in case the spreads more widely in the community, he said./.
Source: VietnamPlus
