The event, as an initiative from Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, drew the participation of 42 cities globally, such as London (the UK), Maryland (the US), Jakarta (Indonesia), Bilbao (Spain), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Ankara (Turkey), Seoul (South Korea), Montreal (Canada), among others.
In his opening speech, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon stressed that the global cities are currently facing a crisis due to the outbreak of COVID-19 which threatens the lives of the people.
He expressed his desire to build a network of inter-city cooperation around the world to share and work out measures to timely respond to new infectious diseases.
Speaking at the online conference, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung highly spoke of the initiative to hold the global summit of heads of city’s government by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. Via the event, the cities share their experiences in the fight against the pandemic.
He outlined the socio-economic characteristics of Hanoi as well as the success of Vietnam and Hanoi in containing the spread of the coronavirus.
According to him, Vietnam had confirmed a total of 328 cases of COVID-19 infection. Of whom, 223 cases have been cured and no fatality recorded in the country so far.
Hanoi had detected 114 cases, of them, 113 have been given the all-clear. The city has gone through 48 days without any community transmission.
The Hanoi leader attributed the COVID-19 combat outcomes to the timely and sound leadership of the leaders at all levels.
Right after the epidemic broke out, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong made the call to encourage the entire country to drastically take COVID-19 prevention measures, Chung said, adding that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also issued many directives on disease prevention and control, under a consistent mindset of uniting the whole nation to fight against the epidemics like fighting against the enemy and prioritizing people’s health over economic benefits.
Sharing COVID-19 combat experiences with the participants, the Hanoi mayor said that the city quickly traced people in direct contact with COVID-19 patients and quarantined them at designated facilities. While, all those in contacts with suspected people have been required to practice home isolation under close supervision of the community and grassroots health care units.
In the peak period, Hanoi put more than 50,000 people into quarantine in mass quarantine centers, while putting an entire commune with more than 12,000 residents under lockdown, he emphasized.
Chung said, in addition to quick response and contact tracing, Hanoi has provided information about the epidemic publicly and transparently via media outlet, built the Hanoi Smartcity app to manage quarantined people, and conducted rapid COVID-19 tests for those in isolation and patients.
On behalf of the city government, Chairman Chung expressed his agreement on the necessity to set up a cooperation mechanism among cities globally to share information about the fight.
He affirmed that this is an effective solution to cope with the pandemic as well as serves as a premise for the cities to cooperate in overcoming economic impact caused by the disease and boosting economic development post-COVID-19.
Participating cities adopted the Seoul Statement on solidarity and cooperation to combat the pandemic.
