Members of the Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control called for accelerating responses to the pandemic as the situation is worsening swiftly and complicatedly on global scale. 

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the Steering Committee for COVID-19
Prevention and Control chairs the committee's meeting on Wednesday. Photo:VGP

At a meeting on Wednesday morning, the Committee’s members discussed measures to tighten control of entrants in order to staunch spread of the virus to Viet Nam and organization of quarantine among other topics.

The Committee members underlined the importance of continued implementation of the principles of active prevention, early detection, timely quarantine.

They also stressed the need to coordinate closely with other countries in deploying comprehensive measures to contain transmission and called on all people’s involvement in this fight.

Regarding quarantine space, the army has prepared 140 quarantine areas that can accommodate as many ass 44, 718 people, said Major General Nguyen Xuan Kien, Director General of the Military Medicine Department under the Ministry of National Defense.

At present, the army is quarantining 6,986 people, said Kien, adding that the army can mobilize more facilities for centralized quarantine of additional of 10,000-20,000 people.

In a latest move, the Vietnamese Government decided to halt visa issuance to foreigners for 30 days, staring from March 18.

The Government also ordered all entrants shall be medically checked and have to comply with the nation’s COVID-19 prevention and control measures./.