Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam underscored the need for people to limit travel, wear masks, wash hands regularly, eat thoroughly-cooked food and complete health declarations, while chairing an online meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Hanoi on March 25.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam chairs an online meeting of
the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control

In his address, Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam who is also Head of the Steering Committee delivered a message calling for the people to stand side by side in the fight against the epidemic.

Every efforts to combat the COVID-19 epidemic need to be redoubled from central agencies to localities with the active public involvement, Dam said while emphasizing that people must be responsible for their health, the community and national security.

At the meeting, the Deputy PM asked the Ministry of Health to be prepared  to respond to a scenario of 10,000 infected cases, provide quarantine facilities, and compile a list of hospitals ready to receive cases from different quarantine areas.

The Ministry of Defence has so far offered 141 concentrated isolation facilities capable of receiving 45,000 people, with approximately 23,000 being put into quarantined.

Screening procedures should be well implemented at isolation areas to minimize risks of infection to self and others, the Deputy PM noted.