In his meeting on Friday afternoon with leaders of the Da Nang Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control to discuss next steps in the fight against COVID-19, municipal Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang urged the district authorities and the health sector to keep abiding by the city’s preventative measures.

Secretary Nguyen Van Quang (left) delivers his address on next steps in the fight against COVID-19 at the Friday’s meeting.

Over recent days, only one of more than 84,240 swab samples collected from families in Da Nang has tested positive for the virus.

“This shows that Da Nang has got the coronavirus outbreak under control, and we are seeing drastic decrease of transmission in our city. However, the results from the investigations of new cases in the city, especially isolated close contacts of infected patients subsequently testing positive, shows that they incubated the virus for longer than 14 days. Therefore, negative test results for the first time can't be conclusive evidence of these cases. It is recommended that district authorities and relevant agencies continue to take extra precautions and stay vigilant in order to make a swift and effective COVID-19 response." Secretary Nguyen Van Quang remarked.

The city Party chief demanded district authorities and relevant agencies to complete the city’s COVID-19 testing programme for people in higher-risk jobs as soon as possible. The Department of Transport should work closely with road transport operators to ask all their drivers to actively register at their places of residence to test for the virus.

“This is a new regulation that is beneficial to the people in Da Nang, and it is very effective to our city to control COVID-19. However, there are some people who do not adhere to this new regulation. The Department of Transport will work closely with the Department of Justice to impose strict penalties on those who do not take the initiative to get tested for the virus before May 22." said Mr Quang.

Municipal People's Committee Chairman Le Trung Chinh requested relevant agencies to complete the city’s population-wide testing programme soonest with a focus on people in higher-risk jobs, workers in local industrial parks, as well as to enforce the law to impose administrative fines and other penalties for non-compliance with the city’s COVID-19 rules and regulations.

According to latest figures released by the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, two more COVID-19 cases were recorded in Da Nang on May 21. The two new cases that are close contacts of previously confirmed cases have already placed under quarantine before testing positive for the virus. Also on May 21, medical staff collected swab samples for COVID-19 from nearly 33,000 people in the city.

Till date, the collection of swab samples for COVID-19 from local households has showed 84.5% of the plan set by the city. In addition, 14,434 out of 65,444 workers in local industrial parks have their swab samples taken for the virus.

The Da Nang Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control is urging all road transport drivers in the city, especially drivers of contracted vehicles with under 9 passenger seats, motorbike taxi drivers, shippers, to get swab samples for testing at their localities.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Translating by H.L