Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked for extra efforts to quickly stamp out new COVID-19 outbreaks before the lunar New Year festival, which falls in mid-February. |
The PM made the request at a permanent cabinet meeting on the situation of zoning off and dealing with newly-detected infections on January 29, just one day after an urgent meeting with the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on the sidelines of the ongoing 13th National Party Congress. He said that several leaders, who are delegates to the congress in Hanoi, returned to their localities to direct, or chaired online meetings with their localities on disease prevention and control work. The Health Ministry has also sent many experienced staff to support the affected localities in the fight against the pandemic. The PM stressed that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is spreading very quickly, that needs to take more rapid actions and extensive testing, and quickly trace for anyone with possible contacts with the confirmed patients. Localities with community-transmitted infections should practice social distancing at high-risk areas. The Prime Minister also urged the Health Ministry to submit a plan on buying COVID-19 vaccines to try serving people within the first quarter of 2021. Source: Nhan Dan Online |