Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son talks to the infected person who stays at the quarantine area of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City over the phone. (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City has vowed to stem the spread of the new coronavirus (nCoV) and that no one would die from the virus in the city, said Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem on February 9.
He made the statement while meeting with a Ministry of Health working team, led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son.
As HCM City faces a high risk of the nCoV spread, the city has deployed various precautious measures to control the epidemic, Liem said.
The city have requested departments and agencies as well as 24 districts to develop their own plan to respond to the real situation, he emphasised.
Despite being a huge, densely-populated metropolis with a large number of foreigners coming in and out, the city is keeping the situation under control with no case of human-to-human transmission reported so far, the leader said.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son welcomed the city’s effort to contain the outbreak, saying its preventive measures have proved effective. Besides three people infected with the virus after returning from China’s epidemic-hit areas, the city has no new infection.
However, Son voiced his worry over the fact that there are only two quick response teams in each district of the city which he said is not enough. He suggested the city to add more of such teams to create a greater barrier against the virus.
“Ho Chi Minh City needs to increase the number of quick response teams, build more quarantine areas for suspected cases at district-level hospitals and minimise the transfer of the suspected cases to higher-level hospitals that can cause overloads and in-hospital infection,” the deputy minister said.
Assoc. Prof, Dr. Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the municipal Department of Health, said three people so far have been confirmed to carry the new coronavirus in the city, one of who has been discharged from hospital; 27 suspected cases have been tested negative with the virus.
Local hospitals have monitored 39 people who had had close contact with the infected persons, he said, adding that the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City have admitted 44 suspected cases, including one confirmed infection.
The city plans to inaugurate an acute respiratory disease hospital on February 10 to prepare the city in case the coronavirus spreads more widely in the community, he said./.
VNA
