PM urges ministries, localities to prevent nCoV outbreak

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like virus has spread across Asia and other countries including the US and France. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued an urgent dispatch on preventing the acute respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) strain, which is developing complicatedly in China without specific treatment and preventive vaccine yet.

The dispatch was sent to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Information and Communication, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, Vietnam News Agency, Nhan dan (People) newspaper, Voice of Vietnam (VOV), Vietnam Television (VTV), and People’s Committees of all centrally-run cities and provinces.

The PM ordered the health ministry to strictly control passengers entering at border gates via road, waterway and air. Any suspicious cases must be isolated and managed promptly, he said, requesting to prepare effective response plans.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were tasked to closely work with the Ministry of Health to provide related information and warned Vietnamese citizens to not visit areas affected by the virus.

Meanwhile, Chairmen of the municipal and provincial People’s Committees were requested to strictly implement the disease control directed by the health ministry and ensure the sufficient supply of medicines, transport vehicles, equipment, and funding for disease prevention and control activities in their localities

The two cases tested positive for nCoV in Vietnam are Chinese citizens who have been quarantined at Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital.

Li Ding, 66, went to Hanoi from Wuhan on January 13, before going to Nha Trang city in central Khanh Hoa province, said Dr Nguyen Ngoc Sang of the Cho Ray Hospital’s Department of Tropical Diseases.

His son Li Zichao, 28, who has lived in the Mekong Delta province of Long An near HCM City for the past four months, went to visit him in Nha Trang. Both of them then travelled to HCM City and Long An, said Sang.

The father got fever on January 17, while the son had similar symptoms January 20. Both were admitted to the Cho Ray Hospital on January 22 night.

China has so far confirmed that 41 people have died and 1,287 people infected by the virus across the country.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like virus has spread across Asia and other countries including the US and France./.