Khổng Minh Tuấn.

Khổng Minh Tuấn, the deputy director of the Hà Nội Centre for Disease Control (CDC), talks to the Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper about the current COVID-19 pandemic situation in Hà Nội.

Will the number of COVID-19 cases in the city continue to increase in the coming days?

As of Saturday, Hà Nội has implemented social distancing according to Directive No. 17/CT-UBND issued by the Chairman of the Hà Nội People's Committee for one week.  We will be able to trace most of the F0s after seven to 10 days of implementing social distancing. Therefore, during this time we will see an increasing number of new positive cases. 

As expected, the number of new cases will continue to increase in the following two days. But after at least 10 days of implementing social distancing, together with everyone’s strict compliance with pandemic prevention measures, the number of cases should gradually decrease.

From 6 pm on July 29 to 6 pm on July 30, Hà Nội recorded 119 new positive cases of COVID-19. This figure indicates that we have assessed the risk correctly, and we have traced the right cases and did not miss any. It also means that anti-pandemic measures are working.

How do you assess the current developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in the capital?

This new wave of the pandemic is much more difficult than the previous ones. Because now we have cases in 29 out of 30 districts and towns. Clusters of cases have appeared in most of the districts, from urban areas to suburban areas.

Prolonged development of outbreaks has also been recorded, such as at Hà Nội Lung Hospital; in Thọ Am Village (Liên Ninh Commune, Thanh Trì District); in Nguyễn Du Ward (Hai Bà Trưng District); in Tân Mai Ward (Hoàng Mai District)... In particular, many infection cycles (F1 turning into F0;  F2 turning into F0 and F3 turning into F0) have appeared in this outbreak.

What is the most worrying pandemic risk that the capital is facing?

In the current situation, the most worrying thing is that many infections in the community have not been detected immediately. This is because, during this wave, many cases do not show clear symptoms. Anyone is at risk of getting the virus, even in a quarantined area.

Therefore, when there is only a small change in their health condition, people need to immediately report it to local health officials for monitoring and sampling. There are many cases, only through community screening or through having symptoms of cough and fever, that have been found to be positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In your opinion, what important measures should be promoted to timely detect new cases and stamp out the pandemic?

Now, in order to timely detect cases, then progress to isolation or quarantine in order to soon stamp out the pandemic, it is necessary to focus on the three most important issues.

The first is raising awareness among people. Each citizen needs to work with the health sector to strictly comply with Directive No. 17/CT-UBND of the Chairman of the Hà Nội People's Committee, and at the same time comply with the 5K message of the Ministry of Health.

The second thing is to enhance the efficacy and the role of the community which means to "go to every alley, and door to door". Community COVID-19 teams need to strengthen their operation, when detecting cases of fever, cough, they need to inform the local health force to take samples for testing.

The third important measure is to strengthen the capacity of the health system to speed up the monitoring and sampling process.

If the above measures are well applied, in your opinion, will Hà Nội be able to put the pandemic under control after 15 days of implementing social distancing?

The goal when applying social distancing measures is that after 15 days, we must be able to detect all F0s in the community. When we apply effective pandemic prevention and control measures along with the people's serious sense of compliance, after 15 days, I believe the capital can control the virus. — VNS