Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairwoman Ngo Thi Kim Yen on Friday called on authorities at local level and relevant agencies to take drastic measures to try and stop the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus after 14 cases of Omicron had been detected in Quang Nam.

Vice Chairwoman Ngo Thi Kim Yen highlighted the need to take proactive steps to respond to the new Omicron variant of COVID -19 at Friday meeting of municipal COVID-19 Monitoring Committee. Photo: PHAN CHUNG

Vice Chairwoman Yen pointed out that the COVID-19 situation remains complicated in Da Nang, and the city continues to see triple-digit increases in its daily COVID-19 case count. She stated that wet markets, hospitals, and crowded alleys are high-risk areas for spreading the virus.

Mrs Yen urged authorities at local level to continue to follow COVID-19 guidelines in line with the current direction with a focus on limiting large events to minimize risks to public health, especially on New Year Holiday and Tet Festival. Necessary events will be allowed to organize but strict limits on crowd numbers imposed and strict compliance with the 5K recommendations of the Ministry of Health ensured, Mrs Yen emphasized.

Authorities at local level were asked to take the most effective measures to contain new outbreaks and implement precautionary measures to limit Omicron’s reach in an effort to be proactive rather than reactive.

Doctor Nguyen Tien Hong, the Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health said that Da Nang has confirmed 4 new imported suspected cases of the Omicron variant. The patients were among 186 Vietnamese citizens flying home from Malaysia on two repatriation flights that landed in Da Nang. They were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 and admitted to the field hospital at the second test. Their samples have been sent to the Nha Trang Pasteur Institute for genomic sequencing to identify Omicron variant.

Vice Chairwoman Yen stressed the need to transfer these patients to Hoa Vang District Medical Center for treatment and prepare 20 beds for future patients infected with the Omicron variant.

The variant, believed to have originated in southern Africa, has already been detected in a number of European countries, including Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and the UK.

The health agency was tasked to take appropriate measures to combat the spread of the new variant. The heed must be paid on ramping up contact tracing of imported cases of the Omicron variant that landed in Da Nang and are being isolated and treated in Quang Nam.

Special attention must be given to putting in place strict health and safe measures at the Da Nang Airport in order to early detect imported Omicron cases and reduce the risk of overseas arrivals to bring the new variant into the city, Mrs Yen directed.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Translating by H.L