Localities urged to continue raising COVID-19 alert levels

On global scale, infections have kept rising quickly without signs of slowing down, especially the second wave of COVID-19 has emerged in countries which have reopened borders.

In addition, the declaration of successful manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines by some countries is in initially good signal but the pandemic can't be pushed back overnight.

Domestically, the infection clusters in Da Nang and Quang Nam are being controlled with the number of new cases falling gradually over the past days, said Nguyen Thanh Long, acting Minister of Health.

However, another cluster in Hai Duong Province has emerged with 11 infection cases confirmed and more are expected in the coming days. All these cases are linked to a beef restaurant in Hai Duong city.

The Ministry of Health said the source of infection may enter the restaurant from July 25-27 and genome sequencing showed that the strain of COVID-19 in Hai Duong and Da Nang is of the same type.

In Ha Noi alone, the community infection risks still remain as more than 18,000 out of 100,170 Hanoians with travel records to Da Nang from July 15-29 have not got real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

Given the above situation, the National Steering Committee asked ministries and localities to continue tightening management of entrants, especially foreign experts, investors, and skilled workers while improving contact-tracing and testing capacity.

Experts suggested the National Steering Committee assign competent agencies to mull over technical and legal measures, including mandatory installation of apps like online health declaration, NCOVI, and Bluezone by smart phone users to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smart rings should also be taken into consideration to assist in early COVID-19 detection, they added.

Citizens are encouraged to strictly abide by the instructions on COVID-19 prevention and control, such as refraining from going outside if not necessary, wearing facemask, keeping safe distance from each other and washing hands regularly.

One of the most effective measures is to wear facemask when staying outdoor, the National Steering Committee stressed.

(Source: VGP)