Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh on Monday afternoon urged relevant agencies to take more drastic action to stop the spread of COVID-19 with first priority given to symptomatic and asymptomatic testing, isolation, and contact tracing.

Municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh called for stronger action to contain the spread of the virus at a meeting on Monday afternoon. Photo: PHAN CHUNG

Mr Minh affirmed that Da Nang is on the right track in its effort to slow the spread of the virus. Health officials and tracers have quickly identified close contacts of new cases, isolate and test them in addition to scaling up COVID-19 testing programme for the city’s population, the city leader added.

Vice Chairman Minh called for continued efforts to manage the coronavirus outbreak in the city amid a surge in cases related to the 59-year- old security guard who tested positive for the virus on June 18.

“For the time being, we must act swiftly to stop the spread of the virus to bring the outbreak under control and help life in Da Nang go back to normal," directed Vice Chairman Minh.

The city leader also asked functional forces staffing at COVID-19 checkpoints to take stronger action to ensure effective checks on persons and transport vehicles, while ensuring the safety and smooth flow of road traffic, movements at points of entry to the city.

In addition, Mr Minh directed the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention to work with its counterparts in other Vietnamese localities to catch up on the last updates on the COVID-19 situation in their locales, especially infected patients and their contacts linked to Da Nang in order to enable effective responses to these cases.

Vice Chairman highlighted the sigificance of raising public awareness about the dangers of the coronavirus to help them take action to protect themselves and others through their good practice of the 5K recommendations of the Ministry of Health, advice and guidance for infection prevention and control from the Da Nang government and health bodies.

Doctor Nguyen Tien Hong, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health said Da Nang on Monday ( June 21) recorded 6 new confirmed cases, all contracted locally, in the 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 41 after the resurgence of COVID-19 in middle of June. All the locally acquired cases in the community have been identified as primary close contacts of the 59-year- old security guard who tested positive for the virus on June 18.  

Da Nang has already tracked down 422 primary close contacts of the infected security guard and put them under quarantine at 17 designated facilities while local healthcare workers are putting in place close monitoring of 805 secondary close contacts at their places of residence.

According to latest data released by the Da Nang CDC, medical workers have taken swab samples of more than 12,430 people in the city to test for the virus.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Reporting by H.L