PM Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting. (Photo: VNA)

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on December 16 chaired an online meeting with localities to find out the root cause of the surge in COVID-19 cases within the community, and seek drastic measures to curb the pandemic spread.

The PM, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, stressed that the pandemic is unpredictable with the emergence of the Omicron variant, while COVID-19 infections and death toll in the country keep rising, hence the meeting.

He required localities to candidly identify problems and difficulties in the pandemic fight, and raise proposals regarding vaccines, treatment drugs, medical supplies as well as the direction and implementation work.

Chinh stressed that extra efforts are needed to reduce the numbers of new cases, severe cases, and fatalities.

He asked localities to continue implementing the Government’s Resolution 128/NQ-CP dated October 11, 2021 on safe and flexible adaptation to and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic. No locality is allowed to issue regulations contrary to those by the upper level.

The Ministry of Health reported that in the fourth wave of outbreaks to December 15, the country recorded more than 1.4 million cases of COVID-19, with 28,500 deaths. Over 1 million patients hadrecovered.

In the week from December 9 to 15, the country detected 106,918 new infections, including 64,723 found in the community. Most of the new cases were reported in the southern region (71.2 percent).

The ministry forecast that new infections and deaths would increase in many localities in the time ahead as social activities have been resumed, people begin to let guard down and new variants spread quickly, among other reasons./.