Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang on Wednesday underlined a must-do to increase publicity activities and the imposition of strict penalties on those who show defiance of the mandatory COVID-19 prevention and control regulations released by national and municipal governments.

Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang (standing) and municipal People's Committee Chairman Le Trung Chinh chairing the Wednesday meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control measures in the city

According to assessments by Secretary Quang, at this time, no COVID-19 cases linked to the newly discovered outbreaks in some Vietnamese localities have been recorded in Da Nang, but this fact does not mean that Da Nang will totally be free from the risk of corovirus resurgence.

He explained, the new variants of the coronavirus “can spread more quickly” than prior strains of the virus, especially the whole country is ringing in the arrival of Tet, which makes Da Nang be unable to stand outside this ongoing tough fight against the deadly virus. 

On these days in the buildup to Tet, the Da Nang Party chief urged all relevant local agencies to focus on tightening the practice of pandemic prevention and control measures in a number of high-risk locales, especially those with a large concentration of people such as shopping centres, entertainment areas and festivals.

“The activities serving Tet, which have been deployed, are allowed to proceed to maintain the material and spiritual life of the local residents, but measures against the coronavirus must be put in place in a drastic manner”, said Secretary Quang.

All viewers to fireworks shows which will take place on Lunar New Year’s Eve, 12 February are required to wear face masks and keep safe distance with others to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

According to recent report delivered by the municipal Health Departments, starting from 29 January, the local medical force began conducting contact tracing on all arrivals from coronavirus-stricken northern Vietnamese localities over recent days.

As of 3 February, Da Nang had quarantined 429 arrivals from coronavirus-hit localities, including Chi Linh Town of Hai Duong Province, the epicenter of Viet Nam's new COVID-19 outbreak that began last week, Quang Ninh, another major COVID-19 cluster, and other relevant localities.

No COVID-19 cases linked to the newly discovered outbreaks in such some Vietnamese localities as Ha Noi, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong and Gia Lai have been recorded in Da Nang.

"In fact, in recent days, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Ha Noi and a number of other provinces and cities nationwide have still regularly record community transmission cases, some of which were not from the suspected F1 persons who are quarantined. This shows a highly concerning fact that new virus strains originating from the UK and South Africa, which have been detected in locally transmitted and imported cases in Viet Nam respectively, have short transmission cycles, and they are highly transmissible, and especially, sparking concerns that vaccines may be less effective against them”, said doctor Ngo Thi Kim Yen, Director of the municipal Department of Health.

The imposition of hefty fines on those who donot wear masks in public and the accelerating of the coronavirus ‘test, track and trace’ strategy in a prompt yet effective manner are amongst the drastic measures to keep Da Nang free of the coronavirus.

The top priority is being given to the strict practice of the Health Ministry-mandated 5K (in Vietnamese) motto: namely ‘Khau trang’ (Face mask) – ‘Khu khuan’ (Disinfection) – ‘Khoang cach’ ‘Distance’ - ‘Khong tu tap’ (No gatherings) – ‘Khai bao y te’ (Health Declaration) in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus. 

Administrative fines of up to 3 million VND are now imposed on those who donot wear masks in public places across the city. The fines are 10 times higher than the previous ones, which were only 100,000VND - 300,000VND.

Viet Nam logged 37 locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections in the northern province of Hai Duong province in the past 12 hours as of 6am on 4 February, according to the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The country has registered 1,948 COVID-19 cases so far. Of the total, 1,059 were locally-transmitted cases.

By PHAN CHUNG- Translated by A.T