A medical worker takes a sample for COVID-19 testing from a resident in Khâm Thiên Ward, Đống Đa District in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

HÀ NỘI — More than 16,000 experts and medical workers together with tonnes of modern health equipment have been assigned to HCM City and southern provinces to serve COVID-19 prevention and control.

The information was released by Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long during an online conference on Sunday morning. The conference was chaired by Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính – head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and involved 20 provinces and cities across the country.

Minister Long told participants that the pandemic is still at a complicated and critical stage, pointing out how HCM City and Bình Dương continued to see high numbers of new infections, with about 50 per cent of the new cases discovered in the community.  

However, he did say the situation was gradually being controlled in other southern provinces, with the number of new cases discovered in the community had been decreasing at a rate of between seven and 15 per cent.

In Hà Nội and central provinces such as Khánh Hòa and Phú Yên, the pandemic was also being controlled thanks to drastic measures and social distancing.

However, Long said, this was not the time to be complacent, as there was still a great risk of further outbreaks in the future.

Since July 19, 23 provinces and cities in the country implemented social distancing based on Direction 16.

Besides modern equipment, the Ministry of Health has created 11 resuscitation centres for serious patients in southern provinces. In HCM City alone, six centres with a large number of beds have helped reduce fatalities.

Minister Long said that by Saturday, more than 19.2 million doses of vaccines had been given to residents across the country. — VNS