Hanoi authorities began intensifying their efforts to prevent the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus from entering the city, which has already spread to some countries in Asia.

In the meeting with the city’s MERS-CoV prevention steering committee on June 11, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Van Suu asked districts and towns to create prevention plans in line with the current context and possible disease scenarios.

The localities were also asked to implement community publicity campaigns.

Hoang Duc Hanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Health Department, said although no cases have been reported, the city’s health sector has already implemented a number of measures to prevent the disease, such as boosting supervision at border gates.

The backup health system has been strengthened with 65 teams of mobile disease prevention, and has ensured enough equipment for disease investigation and treatment, Hanh said.

Health staff will be positioned at buildings where people from affected regions are staying to swiftly address any emerging cases, he added.

Hospitals were asked to arrange all necessary facilities to cope with identified cases and strictly follow infection protocols.

Hotels were asked to inform customers of the signs of the disease and report any suspicious cases to health centres.

Next week, Hanoi will organise drills on preventing MERS-CoV.-VNA