A dormitory at the Hà Nội High Technology Vocational School in Nam Từ Liêm District will be used to quarantine Vietnamese people returning from COVID-19-affected countries and territories. — VNA/VNS Photo Anh Tuấn

HÀ NỘI ؅— Authorities in Hà Nội have proposed buying an additional 200,000 COVID-19 test kits to conduct large-scale testing.

Around 20,000 Vietnamese people were expected to return to Hà Nội in the coming days so the city was preparing to screen them all to prevent the disease from spreading, with a focus on those travelling from abroad, said Chairman of Hà Nội People’s Committee Nguyễn Đức Chung at a meeting of the city’s Steering Committee on COVID-19 prevention and control on Friday.

As of March 20, Hà Nội had recorded 26 cases with no fatalities.

Guards remove fences on Trúc Bạch Street where case 17 lives ending its isolation on Friday night. There are no new cases reported in the quater in the last 14 days, while all 500 staff member of nearby Hồng Ngọc Hospital also tested negative to SARS-CoV-2 after being quarantined. VNA/VNS Photo

Chairman Chung said over 70 per cent of COVID-19 patients in Hà Nội were young, which was different from the case in China’s Wuhan City and Italy, where the rates of old people infected with the virus was over 80 per cent. It showed complicated and unexpected developments of the disease in the capital with people of different ages at risk to infections.

Hà Nội plans to allocate 1,000 hospital beds for treating COVID-19 patients as well as suspected cases.

In order to prepare for the quarantine of tens of thousands of Vietnamese people returning to the country, apart from setting up 12 quarantine areas, the city is upgrading an old facility at Mê Linh Hospital to treat COVID-19 patients, with a capacity of 200 beds.

Chairman Chung confirmed that the pandemic in the city was still under control and dismissed speculation on social media that authorities were poised to announce a total lockdown across the city to combat the pandemic. — VNS