Da Nang Party Committee Deputy Secretary Luong Nguyen Minh Triet on Tuesday called on the health agency to take proactive steps to roll out the city’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign for its population and conduct next rapid testing program across the city.

Da Nang Party Committee Deputy Secretary Luong Nguyen Minh Triet (left) delivers his address on the Tuesday meeting to discuss measures to tackle rising positive cases. Photo: PHAN CHUNG

Mr Triet also called for greater efforts from the health agency and relevant units to race to track down every new person infected with COVID-19 and the friends, relatives and contacts who may be at risk.

Da Nang on Tuesday recorded 35 new cases of COVID-19, the municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control’s figure shows. The transmission chain showed two cluster infections with 16 cases: 15 linked to the Viet Hoa Electronics Co., Ltd located in Hoa Khanh Industrial Park, Lien Chieu District and the remainder related to a ring-fencing COVID-19 hotspot, all in managed isolation.  

Notably, Da Nang has four new cases of the coronavirus from an unknown source. Currently, the health agency is actively conducting epidemiological investigations against new cases, speeding up contact tracing and testing efforts for their contacts and people in their associated exposure sites.

According to the Da Nang Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Da Nang has just received more than 69,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from the Ministry of Health and 100,000 rapid test kits from Vingroup.

Deputy Secretary Triet demanded the health agency to prepare plans for a mass vaccination campaign for the city’s population with a focus on the top 16 priority groups in accordance with the guidance produced by the Ministry of Health. In addition, the heed should be paid to carrying out rapid tests for vulnerable people in the city, especially those in high-risk settings.

Municipal People's Committee Chairman Le Trung Chinh called for stricter enforcement of and adherence to existing public health measures across the city, especially in industrial parks, ring-fencing COVID-19 hotspots and local lockdown areas to slow the spread of the virus amid surge in cases.

The city government leader also called on officials to put in place all necessary measures to control the spread of the virus, and strengthen the role of leaders at the local level in outbreak prevention and response.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Translating by H.L