Hai Duong (VNA) – Minister of Health NguyenThanh Long has ordered the northern province of Hai Duong – Vietnam’s recent hotspotof COVID-19 outbreaks – considering implementing the Prime Minister’s Decree 16/CT-TTg on a widerscale to avoid getting behind developments of the pandemic.

Long made the request at an online conference co-organisedby the ministry and local authorities to direct COVID-19 prevention and controlwork across the province.

Decree 16/CT-TTg focuses on deploying urgent and drastic COVID-19 prevention and control measures.

Also at the conference, the minister praised local efforts tomobilize its entire political system and people in fighting the pandemic in ashort time and to promptly lockdown Chi Linh city and Cam Giang district under the decree.

He envisaged the local COVID-19 situation to be further complicatedand prolonged and urged the province to make all-out efforts to curb thespread of the virus.

He recommended letting the army monitor concentrated quarantinesites for tightened discipline in a bid to deter cross infections.

Long asked the local police to tightly manage people’s self-quarantine at residential areas in line with the ministry’s regulations.

He stated the ministry will continue offering moreassistance to Hai Duong.
Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Xuan Thangsaid Hai Duong is now capable of collecting 30,000 samples for COVID-19 testingdaily.

He added that the locality's major tasks are to controlcross infections at quarantine sites, further speed up sample collectionprocess, and direct prevention and control work at industrial parks.

Thang said the provincial Party Committee’s standing board willhold a meeting to issue specific directions focusing on wider-scaleimplementation of Decree 16, prioritising testing at quarantine sites andincreasing personnel for pandemic prevention in Cam Giang district.   

He proposed the ministry increase capacity ofthe COVID-19 treatment hospital at the Hai Duong Medical Technical University Hospital to 600 beds and quickly aid the province in establishing testing facilities inChi Linh, Cam Giang, and at the university hospital.

Deputy head of the National Institute of Hygiene andEpidemiology Tran Nhu Duong said the key work for Hai Duong is to prevent andcontrol the pandemic at industrial parks, particularly in Cam Giang which ishome to 60,000 workers.

According to the provincial centre for disease prevention and control, asof February 14, Hai Duong recorded a total of 461 COVID-19 cases, with 31 casesposted on the day.

To date, the province has collected more than 90,400 samplesand saw 55 patients fully recovered./.