Giving a report at the meeting, Director of Hanoi’s Department of Health Nguyen Khac Hien said that as of 2:00 pm on August 1, Hanoi authorities traced 72,257 people who returned to the capital city from Da Nang since July 8.
According to Hien, in realizing instructions of the municipal People’s Committee Chairman, task forces have conducted quick coronovirus tests for 49,829 returnees, of whom, 11 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the first instance. After confirmatory PCR tests, 10 obtained negative test results while one is pending.
Concerning the two cases of COVID-19 infection, the municipal authorities have so far identified, quarantined and tested 127 people who have been in close contact with the patients, known as F1 cases. All showed negative results.
Addressing the meeting, Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung underscored the utmost importance of communication work in the fight against the novel coronavirus.
He praised relevant units for their effort in strictly carrying out guiding documents of the Central level and the municipal government on tracing those returning from the central city of Da Nang.
He noted that those who have tested negative for COVID-19 will be put under close medical observation.
While, people who go to hospitals and medical centers in the city must abide by the COVID-19 prevention and control protocol, such as washing hands, wearing face masks, measuring body temperature, and declaring health status, among others, the city leader ordered.
According to the official, Hanoi’s stock of test kits is running out due to the increasing number of people registering for rapid testing. The health sector has sent 78,000 test kits out of the 80,000 available to health stations, thus there are only 2,000 kits left.
Chung urged the Department of Health to purchase 20,000 additional testing kits, and requested for more efforts to finish mass testing on August 2.
He underlined the necessity to increase communication activities to encourage people who have returned from pandemic-hit areas to declare their health conditions.
Those with signs of cough, fever, shortness of breath must immediately contact medical facilities, the Chairman demanded.
The city mayor also said that several working groups would be set up to monitor disease prevention work throughout the capital city.
