Frontline forces in HCM City get COVID booster shots. VNA/VNS Photo by Thu Hương

HCM CITY — HCM City has strengthened safety measures to keep out the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Its Department of Health has instructed medical centres across the city to carefully monitor passengers entering through Tân Sơn Nhất Airport and Sài Gòn Port.

Nguyễn Thị Huỳnh Mai, the department’s chief of office, said: “When a person tests positive, their sample will be taken for genomic sequencing. Patients who have the Omicron variant will be transferred to field hospital no 12 in Thủ Đức City.”

District preventive health centres have to report to the department and the city Centre for Disease Control (HCDC) unusual occurrences like a sharp rise in Covid cases or deaths, and also identify the strain.

Hospitals need to activate all preventive measures when detecting Omicron cases.

Oxygen supply is adequate now, according to Mai.

Nguyễn Hồng Tâm, deputy operations director of HCDC, said the city was ready to vaccinate children aged 3-11.

The city had drawn up the list of children and would vaccinate them in 2022 since the ministry had issued guidelines, he said.

The city has 464,000 doses of vaccines, and can immunise around 100,000 people a day.

It will receive more than one million doses soon to give booster shots in January. — VNS