Addressing a meeting on Saturday, Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang urged all relevant local agencies to curb the spread of COVID-19 with a drastic spirit and highest determination level. Top priority must be given to zoning, contact- tracking, isolating and testing, and imposing strict punishment on anyone who flouts the city's COVID-19 rules.

Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang (left) delivers his instructions at the Saturday meeting on COVID-19 prevention solutions.

The city Party chief directed the local healthcare sector, especially the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control (CDC), to actively and promptly coordinate with other functional units in information exchanges related to close contacts of the city's COVID-19 cases in order to stop the spread of the virus.

In particular, heed should be paid to strengthening the deployment of SARS-CoV-2 tests for frontline forces in nationwide agencies and units.

He also asked the Hai Chau District authorities to work with the healthcare sector to evaluate the real situation, and accelerate tracing and testing cases linked to the AMIDA international beauty salon, some of this salon's staff members have tested positive for the virus in recent days.

Echoing Secretary Quang’s view, municipal People's Committee Chairman Le Trung Chinh asked the all-level localities to simultaneously implement measures to perform ‘dual tasks’ of both effectively combating COVID-19 and ensuring security in the community.

Of special note, it is an urgent task to guarantee the ultimate safety during the upcoming elections of deputies to the 15th National Assembly and all-level People’s Councils for 2021 - 2026 term, which are slated to take place on May 23.

“The more infected patients the city registers, the more close contacts of these cases it records, of course. Competent local forces, therefore, must task themselves with speeding up contact-tracking, epidemiological investigation, and travel and contact history of COVID-19 patients for timely intervention measures. In addition, it is necessary to continue promoting the wide publicity of coronavirus prevention orders and handle violations”, Chairman Chinh directed.

According to a quick report by the municipal Department of Health, the local authorities have detected  497 close contacts and 1,670 indirect contacts of infected cases.

Every day, tests for SARS-CoV-2.is conducted on 6,100 people who are at risk of catching the virus and show signs of suspicious infections.

Da Nang has so far recorded 18 COVID-19 positive cases since the latest wave of outbreaks hit the country on April 27.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG- Translating by A.T