Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 29 chaired an urgent meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control for the second time following the detection of a further 54 fresh COVID-19 cases in the community.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 29 chairs an
urgent meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control

Those in attendance included Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, Minister - Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, and many other leaders.

The Government chief underlined the need to take stronger synchronous guidelines and measures to speed up sampling and testing on a large scale, set up a number of field hospitals, and put some high-risk areas into lockdown based on social distancing measures.

The Ministry of Health must propose vaccine purchase to the Government, the Prime Minister and relevant authorities by using the State budget or via support socialization, PM Phuc said.

Earlier, in response to the media on the sidelines of the ongoing 13th National Party Congress, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that as of January 29 afternoon, the country had recorded more than 50 locally-transmitted cases of COVID-19.

However, with every effort to swiftly carry out prevention and control measures, the Deputy PM voiced his hope that the pandemic would be prevented from spreading to the wider community.

Prior to the Prime Minister's meeting on the afternoon of the same day, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long also chaired an online meeting with health experts and medical staff of Hai Duong and Quang Ninh provinces, two coronavirus hotspots in the nation, regarding the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Top priority should be placed on tackling outbreaks locally as the new variant of COVID-19 spreads rapidly, Minister Long said, adding that it is imperative to take samples for testing, screening and classifying in places with high risk of disease transmission.

Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long hosts an online meeting
with heath experts and medical workers from Hai Duong,
and Quang Ninh, the current coronavirus hotspots in Vietnam

Regarding COVID-19 update, the Ministry of Health confirmed an additional 54 COVID-19 infections as of 6 pm January 29, including one imported case from Japan and 53 community-associated cases.

Hai Duong remains to be the locality that recorded the highest number of infection with 48, while two cases were found in Hanoi and Bac Ninh, each, and four in Quang Ninh.

The country has so far recorded 1,705 COVID-19 infections in total, including 839 locally-transmitted cases, and 866 imported into the nation.

The same day, a further 18 coronavirus patients were declared free from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,448. The number of deaths related to the disease remains at 35.

As many as 21,345 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entered Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions are currently isolated nationwide.