Yesterday afternoon, Ho Chi Minh City authorities convened a conference on preventive measures against COVID-19 and open more isolation areas.
Speaking at the conference, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Nguyen Tan Binh said that the city has so far confirmed three cases of the viral infection and all of them have fully recovered.
5 suspect people have been negative for the deadly virus while 44 others who had close contact with infected people have been quarantined for 14 days before they are allowed to resume work and had no symptoms of COVID-19. Presently, 79 people are being isolated in the makeshift hospital in Cu Chi District.
Thanks for the city authorities’ determination against the disease, the city has recorded no new infection after three cases.
However, Director Binh noticed following the alarming rise in infection cases in South Korea and Japan that the city must take heed of disease battle but also economic development.
Local administration must tighten control the area under their jurisdiction and isolate suspect people according to the Ministry of Health’s guideline.
In the upcoming time, to curb overload in isolation areas, the Department of Health proposed to open more isolation hospital besides the present isolation hospital which has 300 beds in Cu Chi because it is forecast that more people will be quarantined.
The city will open one more 200-bed isolation hospital in Nha Be District plus isolation areas in newly-built hospitals.
Director of the municipal Department of Education and Training Le Hong Son proposed that all middle and high school students in the city be back to school from March 16, with the exception of those in grades 9 and 12, who will resume school on mornings from March 2.
The director also suggested that students in their final years of kindergarten and elementary school go back to class from March 16 as the rest continue to enjoy the weeks-long COVID-19 break until further announcement.
Primary schoolers will be back to class on March 15 while fifth grade students will return to school on March 16 but they just study on mornings.
Self-financing universities and colleges decided when to start by themselves. Foreign languages training centers and other learning facilities will reopen on March 16.
At the conferene (Photo: SGGP)
Mentioning resumption of classes, Chairman of the city People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said the Department of Education’s proposal has helped city authorities to well prepare all when waiting for the government’s decision of official resumption of classes. The government will decide the time to reopen school in the upcoming conference.
Chairman Phong affirmed not to neglect in the fight against COVID-19 and to have detail hypothetic situations. State competent agencies must suspend entry visa issuance for those coming from or travel through COVID-19 –hit areas.
Party Chief Nguyen Thien Nhan said that local administrations have taken on great responsibility because they have to detect infection cases for isolation.
At the conference, Mr. Nhan gave bunch of flower to the Department of Health in celebration of Vietnamese Physician day and Mr. Phong gave certificate of merit to the Department for great achievement in monitoring COVID-19.
The COVID-19 has killed 2,702 people and infected over 80,100 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The number of confirmed cases in South Korea has reached 1,146, with 11 deaths.
