ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city’s People's Committee has closed two bridges – the Hàn River Swing and Thuận Phước – to limit travel between downtown Đà Nẵng and the Sơn Trà peninsula as 45 out of the 77 infections found on Thursday were in Sơn Trà.

The city’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC) said Thọ Quang fishing port in the Sơn Trà peninsula has become a hotspot for coronavirus infections as the number of positive cases in the district accounted for 50 per cent of the city’s total infections since July 28.

In supporting people in lockdown zones in the district, the city’s People’s Committee has allocated an allowance of nearly VNĐ100 billion (US$4.4 million) for 160,000 local residents living in the high-risk areas. This equates to assistance of VNĐ40,000 per person, per day.

Different community-based voluntary teams have been assigned to help local residents to buy essential goods and food taking orders every three days during the lockdown.

The city has asked power and clean water supply companies to delay fee collection from lock-down zones as well as to improve banking services in coronavirus hit areas.

Chairman of the Sơn Trà district’s People’s Committee, Hoàng Sơn Trà said a logistic team had been assigned to provide food and necessities for families with small children, pregnant mothers and people with disabilities.

Mass testing programmes have been undertaken in high-risk areas including traditional markets, apartments and fishing trade agents to eliminate possible infections in the community from unknown sources.

Following a decision after a meeting on Thursday, the city will begin home quarantine for close contacts of people who have finished a seven-day quarantine at a mass centre with three negative test results in the districts of Hòa Vang and Ngũ Hành Sơn.

The Hàn River Swing bridge links Đà Nẵng city's downtown with Sơn Trà Peninsula along with Thuân Phước bridge has been closed amid tightening controls to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. VNS Photo Lê Lâm

The deputy director of the city’s CDC, Dr Nguyễn Hòa said only certain accommodations would be used such as apartments or private houses for the first 10 people who began their home quarantine in Hòa Vang district on Thursday.

He said more than 1,000 SARS-COV-2 infection cases across 18 hotspots had been recorded in Đà Nẵng since July 10. Thọ Quang fishing port had the most with 535 cases.

The CDC also warned that Hòa Cầm Industrial Zone was shaping up to be another hotspot as a new infection case (F0) was found at Fujikura Automotive company followed by six others that tested positive with SARS-COV-2 in pool tests on Thursday.

It said 3,349 people were recorded as close contacts (F1), while 5,254 cases were indirect contacts (F2). — VNS