Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung shared the capital’s experience in dealing with, preventing, and controlling the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic with 12 mayors from 42 cities globally during an online mayoral meeting held on June 2 within the framework of the Cities Against COVID-19 Global Summit.

 Hanoi Mayor Nguyen Duc Chung shares Hanoi's COVID-19 response experience
(Photo: VNA) 

Mayor Chung hailed the initiative to hold a global summit with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, with collaboration being one of the most effective measures to cope with the virus, whilst also serving as a premise for major cities to co-operate in addressing the damaging economic impact caused by the pandemic.

Hanoi, with a population of over 10 million, has so far reported 114 COVID-19 cases, of whom 113 have subsequently been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.
The capital has currently gone a period of 48 days without any community transmission whilst no deaths have so far been recorded, he noted.

The Hanoi leader attributed these positive results to the sound leadership displayed by various leaders at all levels. Most notably, immediately after the epidemic initially broke out, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong issued an appeal to the entire country urging drastic prevention measures.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued several directives regarding disease prevention and control based on the spirit of fighting the COVID-19 like fighting a conventional enemy, therefore prioritising people’s health over the economic benefits, he said.

Upon sharing the capital’s experience, Mayor Chung noted that Hanoi successfully rapidly traced people who had possible contact with COVID-19 patients. All people who made direct contact were swiftly quarantined at designated facilities, while those with indirect contacts were also quarantined at their homes under the close watch of grassroots health clinics. During the peak period, over 50,000 people were kept in various quarantine facilities nationwide, whilst an entire commune of over 12,000 people were also isolated. 

In addition to the rapid response and detailed contact tracing,  Hanoi provided information regarding the epidemic both publicly and transparently via different outlets, while also developing the Hanoi Smartcity app aimed at monitoring quarantined people, he added.

In his remarks, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon voiced his desire to build an inter-city co-operation network which can share and facilitate the implementation of measures in response to newly-emerging infectious diseases.

To mark the occasion, participating cities adopted the Seoul Statement on solidarity and co-operation in the fight against the COVID-19.