The meeting between the MoH delegation and the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases on January 31 (Photo: VNA)

HCM City – The Ministry of Health (MoH) has warned Ho Chi Minh City to stay vigilant against COVID-19 as risks of community transmission of new variants remains considerable.

On January 31, an MoH delegation inspected COVID-19 response at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the health centre of District 3, and the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

They said the southern metropolis performed well in pandemic prevention and control during the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday in late January. However, as new variants are likely to enter and spread in the community after Tet, it needs to have plans readied for preventing disease transmission.

Dr Nguyen Vu Thuong, Deputy Director of the HCM City Pasteur Institute and a member of the MoH delegation, cited the World Health Organisation as saying that COVID-19 remains a global health emergency, and the most worrying thing is vaccine- and drug-resistant variants.

Though the number of hospitalised cases in the city has fallen sharply, but new variants may spread in the community and attack the elderly and unvaccinated persons, he noted.

He suggested local authorities issue strong recommendations at tourist attractions and places of worship to remind people of wearing face masks, and increase communications to encourage locals to get vaccinated against the disease.

As of January 31, Vietnam recorded 11,526,497 cases of COVID-19, including 10,612,462 recoveries and 43,186 deaths.

Meanwhile, over 266.09 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered, according to the MoH.