Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son speaks during a visit to check COVID-19 response in the northern province on February 18. (Photo: VNA)Hai Duong must speed up testing and report to the Health Ministry if it needs assistance, he added.
The minister also pointed out that the transmission of the highly contagious UK COVID-19 variant and the mass movement of industrial park workers to return to work after Tet remain the biggest challenges to the province’s effort to contain the coronavirus spread.
Later the same day, Chairwoman of the People’s Committee of Kinh Mon town Nguyen Thi Lieu said a temporary lockdown order has been imposed on the headquarters of local cement producer Vicem Hoang Thach from 2:00pm after one of its workers was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in the morning.
The town’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control immediately collected samples from all 1,635 workers of the company for coronavirus testing.
On the same day’s afternoon, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Hanoi Committee Nguyen Lan Huong, on behalf of the capital city, handed over financial assistance worth 2 billion VND (87,000 USD) and 50,000 medical masks to aid COVID-19 response in Hai Duong.
As of 3:00pm on February 18, Hai Duong has confirmed a total of 576 COVID-19 cases, according to the provincial Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control./.
VNA
