The national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control has sent an urgent official dispatch to the Ministries of Public Security and Transport, and the People’s Committee of Hanoi, asking them to investigate and deal with any possible outbreaks related to a newly confirmed patient in the city.

Hanoi's Truc Bach street is locked down since March 6 midnight (Source: VNA)

According to the steering committee, the female patient, residing on Hanoi’s Truc Bach street, was tested positive for the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 on March 6 and has been quarantined at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases.

The 26-year-old patient earlier visited her sister in the UK, then travelled to Italy and returned to Hanoi on March 1 on flight VN0054 of Vietnam Airlines.

This is the 17th COVID-19 infection case in Vietnam. The previous 16 patients have been successfully cured and discharged from hospital. 

The Ministry of Public Security was requested to instruct relevant units to verify residence addresses of passengers onboard flight VN0054 and inform local authorities so as to timely quarantine these people and monitor their health in line with regulations.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport was asked to direct competent units to provide the list of passengers on the same flight with the patient to supervise their health and conduct quarantine.

The Ministry of Transport was also urged to sterilize relevant aircraft and areas where the patient had gone through or used services at Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport to prevent the spread of the virus.

The steering committee requested the Hanoi People’s Committee to coordinate with units of the Ministry of Public Security to investigate and make a list of people having close contact with the confirmed patient, including the aircrew and passengers on flight VN0054 and ground staff at the Noi Bai airport to quarantine and monitor their health.

Those having close contact with the patient must be quarantined at medical establishments while their samples and samples of the patient’s family members must be sent to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for testing, the steering committee said.

Besides, the municipal People’s Committee must thoroughly sterilize the houses of the patient and neighbouring families as well as vehicles used to transport the patient and other related offices and areas if any.

Earlier, Hanoi’s steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control held an urgent meeting at midnight of March 6 to discuss countermeasures right after the new infection case was reported.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said the risks of confection from COVID-19-hit countries are equal so it is necessary to well carry out the communication work and closely monitor Vietnamese citizens from the disease-affected regions, adding that all of them must make health declarations.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Vuong Dinh Hue stressed that more than 100 people residing on the city’s Truc Bach street must be closely monitored and sterilization measures must be conducted.

Each resident must strictly observe countermeasures and report their health status to authorities if they show symptoms of COVID-19 infection, he stressed.

The city would soon decide the time for local students to come back to school and step up inter-sectoral coordination in the fight against COVID-19 and provide timely and exact information about the epidemic to avoid causing public panics.