Authorities in Hanoi have been requested to enhance countermeasures against the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus (nCoV).

A worker fumigates a classroom at the Viet Duc High School in Hoan Kiem district,
Hanoi, on February 2 (Photo: VNA) 

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung recently issued a directive tasking each department and sector amid complex developments of the epidemic.

In particular, he asked the Capital City Military High Command to build plans for deploying isolation wards and field hospitals in case of outbreaks in Hanoi.

The Department of Tourism was told to order local travel companies to cancel trips to affected areas, and not organise tours for infected clients or receive tourists from there.

Relevant agencies were also demanded to temporarily suspend the granting of visa for foreign tourists coming from nCoV-hit regions, including Chinese visitors, or those who used to be in China within two weeks.

Entry into and exit from the city for tourism purposes by people using border laissez-passers will also be halted, according to the directive.

As of February 3, Hanoi hadn’t recorded any nCoV infections. However, there have been 26 suspected cases who showed coughing and fever symptoms and returned from nCoV-hit areas. All of those people are now in stable health condition, and 15 have been tested negative for the virus. The rest are being isolated and monitored.

Meanwhile, Vietnam confirmed the eighth nCoV-infected case on February 3. The new patient is a female worker from the northern province of Vinh Phuc, who returned to Vietnam from China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the epidemic, last month on a China Southern Airlines flight, the same flight taken by three other Vietnamese previously tested positive to the virus.

The other cases consist of two Chinese nationals (a man and his son), a Vietnamese hotel receptionist having contact with the Chinese father and son, and a US citizen transiting Wuhan on his flight to Vietnam.