VĨNH PHÚC — The northern province of Vĩnh Phúc house the majority of Vietnamese people infected with the deadly acute respiratory disease COVID-19, putting local authorities at the forefront of fighting the outbreak.

By Wednesday, a total of 15 people in Việt Nam had tested positive to the virus, and 10 of them are in Vĩnh Phúc Province, according to the Ministry of Health. Eight of them are in Bình Xuyên District, one in Tam Dương District and another in Tam Đảo District.

More than 300 people are under supervision and 63 are quarantined, according to the provincial steering committee for COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control.

The provincial Party Standing Committee on Wednesday had a conference in which participants discussed different ways to allocate more medicine, equipment and places for quarantine and treatment.

Vice Chairman of Vĩnh Phúc People’s Committee Vũ Việt Văn on Tuesday also sent a letter guiding instruction on epidemic prevention and control to concerned organisations.

The provincial People’s Committee asked chairmen of districts' people’s committees to focus on inspection and quarantine.

The provincial department of health should give guidance to lower-level organisations.

Checking should be widened to find more people who need to be quarantined. Each village should have a task force responsible for giving education on epidemic prevention and control to each family, check their temperature and ask people with suspected symptoms to go to medical stations for examination.

Quarantine areas must be watched closely by commune police and sterilised regularly.

In an inspection of Vĩnh Phúc Province on Tuesday, associate professor Lương Ngọc Khuê, director of the Medical Service Administration under the Ministry of Health (MoH), praised the province for its efforts to cope with the epidemic, adding that the province should supervise affected areas.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long said the province should prepare plans for cross-infection.

Emphasising the importance of quarantines, Long asked the province to widen the quarantine scale, especially in Bình Xuyên District.

The Vĩnh Phúc Department of Education and Training (DoET) has proposed the provincial People’s Committee keep schools shut for one more week, from February 17 to 23, to ensure epidemic control.

Nguyễn Việt Hà, an official of the department, said during the absence, students would be taught via the internet.

Acting Director of the Vĩnh Phúc DoET on Tuesday presented a certificate of merit to Đào Chí Mạnh, principal of Kim Ngọc Primary School in Vĩnh Yên City, for his excellent achievements in organising online teaching during the outbreak.

According to the department, the school’s online studying channels are very useful, attracting a great number of students to join, not only from the school but also from other schools in the province.

Mạnh said the school had two online studying channels, which were vio.edu.vn and eteachers.edu.vn.

Nearly 1,000 students access the websites per day, said Mạnh. — VNS