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HCMC urged to apply social distancing after dozens test positive for coronavirus

by e.vnexpress.net

These high-risk areas should be governed by the government’s Directive 16 that bans public gatherings of more than two people and asks people to stay home, stepping out only for emergencies, Long said.

The proposal was made at a meeting Monday after HCMC recorded five recent community transmissions, all being baggage handlers at Tan Son Nhat Airport and 25 of their close contacts who have tested positive for the virus and are awaiting Health Ministry confirmation as Covid-19 patients. The source of the new cluster at the airport has not been determined.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed with the proposal at the meeting, saying that there have been seven areas in HCMC recording community transmissions, and social distancing should be applied in those areas.

The areas are in Districts 1, 9, 12, Binh Thanh, Go Vap, Binh Tan and Tan Binh.

HCMC applied social distancing under Directive 16 from April 1 to 22 last year.

Long said the outbreak in the baggage handling area at Tan Son Nhat could have existed long before and that some people involved may have been infected and then recovered.

“The outbreak in HCMC was quite complicated and has gone through many cycles of infection; therefore, the source of this outbreak has not yet been determined. This is what makes us very worried,” he said.

The heath minister said even though they did not have contact with air passengers, the infected airport staff could still have interacted with many people in the community. He asked the city government to urgently prevent the outbreak from spreading further.

As of Monday morning, several residential areas in HCMC have been locked down. Health staff are racing against time to track down all those in close contact with the confirmed patients and suspected cases for centralized quarantine and coronavirus testing.

HCMC has now recorded six locally transmitted cases, counting from Jan. 28 when community transmissions returned to Vietnam after 55 clean days, with the first case related to the cluster in northern Hai Duong Province.

In the past 11 days, Vietnam has registered 422 domestic cases in 12 cities and provinces.

Vietnamese will celebrate Tet, the country’s biggest festival, this Friday but authorities in HCMC decided to cancel firework shows on Lunar New Year’s Eve amid the complicated development of the pandemic.

More Tan Son Nhat employees test positive for SARS-CoV-2

by dtinews.vn

Two more staff at the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, while Hung Yen Province has become a new locality in the country to report community cases.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son work with authorities in HCM City about the new outbreak on February 9

Nguyen Tri Dung, director of HCM City CDC announced on February 9 during the regular Covid-19 prevention meeting that the test results had come back positive for two more employees at Tan Son Nhat Airport. Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son arrived in HCM City to give directives about quarantine, treatments and contact tracing tasks.

Considering the situation in the northern region, after receiving the news about a confirmed case arrived in HCM City from Hai Duong Province on January 28, the Covid-19 Prevention Steering Committee held an urgent meeting and ordered tests for all employees at Tan Son Nhat Airport. From January 30 to February 5, they had detected one confirmed case.

The local health sector also worked with related agencies on contact tracing. Further tests showed four more positive cases on February 8. The city authorities took samples from 830 employees on February 7. The results on February 9 showed two more positive cases.

Six out of seven confirmed cases were ground staff at Tan Son Nhat Airport and one person is an employee of Vietnam Airlines. The authorities also tested 1,600 residents in District 1. The results were negative.

Authorities in Hung Yen Province also reported a positive case on February 9. A lecturer from Yen My District visited the Lung Hospital in Hanoi after having symptoms like coughing and high fever. He was transferred to the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases after the test result came back positive for coronavirus. He works at a college in Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province and went to Hai Duong Province on January 28 before returning to Hung Yen. He had the symptoms 10 days later.

The authorities in Hung Yen immediately launched contact tracing tasks and disinfected high-risk areas.

Due to the complicated situation in Hai Duong and Cam Giang District in particular, the authorities in Hai Duong ordered to lock down in the district from 6 pm on February 5 until further notice.

Gov’t orders HCM City to strengthen COVID preventive measures as 25 more test positive

by vietnamnews.vn

 

HCM City’s District 2 Hospital takes samples from staff for testing for Covid-19. Photo courtesy of the hospital 

HCM CITY — HCM City should immediately zone, trace and end transmission of the new coronavirus through Tân Sơn Nhất Airport, Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long told the city’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Monday.

HCM City has recently recorded five community cases, all being baggage handlers at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport. On Monday the HCM City Centre for Disease Control and Prevention also announced that 25 of their close contacts have tested positive for the virus and are awaiting Health Ministry confirmation as Covid-19 patients.

All patients are now being treated at Củ Chi Field Hospital.

Long said with the patients working in the airport’s cargo area, they might have contracted the disease earlier without being detected.

Though not in contact with passengers, the number of people in the community they have contact with is high, and so the city could have more people testing positive soon, he warned.

Authorities should take more drastic and quicker action to isolate the breakout, he said.

He also instructed them to quickly zone all areas with cases, test widely and precisely identify areas to lock down to reduce the effect on people living elsewhere.

They should conduct pooled‐sample testing for families in areas under lockdown, and take families in which someone tests positive to quarantine areas for a second test, he said.  

He instructed the city’s Pasteur Institute to increase its testing capacity to 5,000 a day.

City People’s Committee Chairman Nguyễn Thành Phong admitted the situation is very uncertain.

He instructed relevant authorities to investigate how the outbreak began to carry out effective preventive measures.

Asked about festivals to be held during the Tết holidays, he said organisers should limit attendees or cancel them if they could not ensure compliance with prevention rules.

Districts people’s committees chairpersons should carry out drastic prevention measures, he said.

Since January 28 the city has locked down several areas in districts 1, Bình Thạnh, Gò Vấp, Bình Tân, and 12.

IT application

Many Vietnamese companies have developed IT applications for COVID-19 prevention and control and online learning during the pandemic.

Since early 2020 Quang Trung Software City has been using an automatic body temperature measurement system it installed at TMA Building and Building 1.

It warns using sound and images when someone walks in with a fever of 37.5 degree Celsius or more.

It said the system should be used at all buildings and quarantine areas in place of people carrying digital thermometers to reduce the risk of transmission.

QTSC has also developed a system for face identification, which sets off an alarm if someone not wearing a mask enters a building.

QTSC has integrated the functions of face identification and temperature measurement in a system it instals for a rent of VNĐ3.5 million (US$151) monthly or sells at VNĐ35-70 million ($1,511- 3,023).  

Bkav Electronic Joint Stock Company developed the Bluezone application to warn smartphone coming in close contact with diagnosed COVID-19 patients. The app has been downloaded by 27 million people, according to Ministry of Health.

The company is collaborating with relevant agencies in the healthcare sector to constantly update information about the location of COVID-19 patients or those suspected to be infected and those from disease-hit areas with symptoms like fever, cough and breathing difficulties.

It also provides the addresses and phone numbers of the nearest health facilities and offers counselling on the disease and health declaration requirements.

Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information and Communications and IT companies have jointly developed an NCOVI application for health declaration.

VNPT also developed an e-learning app used during the COVID-19 outbreaks that helps teachers digitise their syllabus, set up electronic lesson plans, track students’ learning, know their attendance, and test them.

It automatically shows what is wrong when students do tests.

Besides, parents can get their children’s learning history to supervise.   

Other companies such as FPT and Viettel have also developed e-learning apps.

According to Minister of Information and Communications Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, 38 Vietnamese-made digital platforms including NCOVI, Bluezone and e-learning and telemedicine ones have been used.

The country is probably among the ones with the highest number of digital platforms in the world, he added. — VNS

Discharged COVID-19 patient in Hà Nội tests positive again

by vietnamnews.vn

Samples collected from people returning to Hà Nội from outbreak-hit areas to be tested for COVID-19. — VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hùng

HÀ NỘI — A COVID-19 patient in Hà Nội has tested positive for the coronavirus again after being given the all-clear in late February, health authorities announced Tuesday.

N.T.K, Việt Nam’s COVID-19 Patient No. 1,958, reported on February 5, residing in Cầu Giấy District, was discharged from hospital on February 27 but after two days of the mandatory 14-day home isolation, she tested positive for the virus on March 1.

Health authorities noted that these re-positive cases recorded post-discharge usually do not cause risks of spreading the virus to the community, even among close family members.

This is the second such case in the city in its latest community outbreak, with the first being reported on February 25.

According to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Hoàng Đức Hạnh, Hà Nội recorded no new local transmissions from February 16 to March 2.

The city’s authorities continue to collect samples from people arriving in the capital and those returning from outbreak-hit regions to test for COVID-19. — VNS

Foreign sailors anchored at Vung Tau test positive for coronavirus

by en.vietnamplus.vn

Foreign sailors anchored at Vung Tau test positive for coronavirus hinh anh 1 The sailors are still on the vessel and have not carried out procedures to enter Vietnam. (Photo: PLO)

Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA) – Two crew members aboard a Singaporean vessel anchored offshore of southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, while two others are suspected of carrying the virus.

The ship Ocean Amazing travelled from Indonesia and was scheduled to deliver cargo in Vietnam, but on February 20, when it was about to enter Vietnamese waters, one of its 21 sailors committed suicide.

The provincial Centre of Disease Control tested the remaining 20 sailors for the novel coronavirus on the same day, detecting five positive cases and one suspected case.

However, a second test conducted by the centre on February 23 found only two infections and one suspected case.

Gene sequencing is being performed on the samples by the Ho Chi Minh City-based Pasteur Institute.

The sailors are still on the vessel and have not carried out procedures to enter Vietnam.

The ship’s owner expects it to return to Indonesia to replace the crew and disinfect before it returns to Vietnam with the cargo.

According to the provincial Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, no community transmissions have been reported in Ba Ria-Vung Tau./.

VNA

Mekong Delta provinces step up COVID preventive measures as 2 test positive in Đồng Tháp

by vietnamnews.vn

Border guards on patrol in Đồng Tháp Province to ensure everyone entering the country from Cambodia is quarantined and tested for COVID-19. — VNA/VNS.Photo Chương Đài

HCM CITY — Mekong Delta provinces are tightening preventive measures against COVID-19, especially along land borders and coastal entry points, after Đồng Tháp Province reported two new cases.

On February 28 a 37-year-old man in Hậu Giang Province who worked aboard a barge bringing cargo from Cambodia’s Phnom Penh tested positive and was quarantined immediately.

He had arrived along with another man at the Thường Phước International Sea Port in Đồng Tháp’s Hồng Ngự District on February 26.

Authorities have identified three people who came into close contact with the patient.

Earlier, on February 23, the province’s COVID-19 task force quarantined a Vietnamese woman who had entered illegally from Cambodia with the disease.

Authorities traced 11 people who had been in contact with her.

The chairman of the province People’s Committee, Phạm Thiện Nghĩa, has instructed relevant agencies to tighten control over border and coastal entry points.

They should exchange information with their counterparts in neighbouring countries to make plans to preclude the spread of the disease, he said.

Border guards should set up a hotline for locals to report people coming from COVID-hit areas, he added.

Đoàn Tấn Bửu, People’s Committee vice chairman, said everyone entering from Cambodia have to be quarantined and tested.

The People’s Committee has approved the suspension of festivals and other events and closure of amusement places in Hồng Ngự and Tân Hồng districts and Hồng Ngự city.

Educational establishments will be closed from March 1 to 6.

At the border in the provinces of Long An, An Giang and Kiên Giang, soldiers are on duty on 24 hours a day at temporary checkpoints.

Nguyễn Văn Út, chairman of the Long An Province People’s Committee, has instructed border guards to tighten control, warning that a single person could spread the disease if not quarantined in time.

The province is seeking the private sector’s assistance to provide border guards with all the daily necessities they need, he added.

Lâm Minh Thành, chairman of the Kiên Giang Province People’s Committee, said relevant agencies have been instructed to ensure border guards get good mental and physical care to reassure them.

The province has received 80 soldiers from Đà Nẵng City and Bình Định Province for COVID prevention duty at coastal entry points.

It has 80 checkpoints at land and sea, and 11 boats patrol its coast to prevent COVID-19, smuggling and illegal entrants.

Between February 24 and 26 more than 150 people entered the province through the Hà Tiên City land border, and all were quarantined ad tested.

Border guards and other authorities disinfect goods brought in from Cambodia and transfer them to local vehicles for onward transport.

An Giang Province is doing the same thing.

Its People’s Committee plans to set up several task force teams to patrol the border.

Trần Hồng Quân, vice chairman of the Cà Mau Province People’s Committee, said though the province does not share land borders with other countries, its coastal waters are bordered by other countries, a cause for worry, and has instructed relevant agencies to be on high alert.

On March 1 health officials began to test employees of enterprises who are from other provinces.

All businesses with such employees would be tested, Quân added. — VNS