Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on August 3 asked for all-out efforts to be made nationwide to handle the fresh coronavirus outbreak in Vietnam, first and foremost in the central city of Da Nang.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc says early August would be the decisive time to see
if the disease spreads on a large scale or not 

Addressing a regular monthly Cabinet meeting for July, Phuc warned localities not to be complacent and not let the disease break out again on a large scale.

“Early August would be the decisive time to see if the disease spreads on a large scale or not, therefore all resources must be pooled to promptly handle the outbreak, especially one in Da Nang,” he said.

According to the PM, the Government has taken swift actions to help Da Nang respond to the outbreak by dispatching thousands of health workers from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to the locality. Other localities, like Quang Nam, have also adopted drastic measures to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic.

Da Nang has become the focal point of public attention for the past week after the first locally transmitted coronavirus case was detected on July 25, ending a 99-day streak that Vietnam has obtained without community transmission.

The city, a famous tourist destination in central Vietnam, has so far recorded 120 out of a total of 174 fresh cases. It has stepped up contact tracing, conducted extensive testing, implemented a social distancing order, and locked down five hospitals and several residential areas to prevent the virus spreading further in the locality.  

The city is putting finishing touches to a first field hospital and is considering building another in order to ease the burden on overloaded hospitals.

As the second wave of the epidemic broke out in Vietnam, the Prime Minister reminded localities of the spirit of ‘fighting against COVID-19 like fighting against the enemy’ adopted several months ago, and said ‘every family, village must be an anti-epidemic fortress, and every citizen must be a soldier on the front of combating the disease’.

He said the government has embarked on the policy of epidemic prevention and economic recovery at the same time to get the coronavirus hit economy back on track. He had chaired meetings with the leaderships of big cities and provinces such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Tien Giang, and those in the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta , to iron out business snags, restore production, accelerate public investment disbursement, and foster growth.

He quoted a recent World Bank update, as saying the Vietnamese economy, despite being seriously affected by COVID-19, will remain resilient and is poised to bounce back. The national economy is projected to grow by 2.8% for this year and 6.8% for next year if the world situation gradually improves.

However, the Prime Minister acknowledged that the difficulty is still lying ahead and more measures must be adopted to help the economy weather the storm.

By August 3 morning, Vietnam had recorded 621 COVID-19 cases, including 373 recoveries and six fatalities.