Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc urged the health care sector to improve testing capacity.  —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has ordered the medical sector to create a national-scale health care system in response to a scenario with an increasing number of critically-ill COVID-19 patients.

Chairing the Government’s meeting on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday, he urged the health care sector to improve testing capacity for patients showing light symptoms such as coughing, fever and shortness of breath. At the same time, the sector must focus on protecting the health of people in high-risk groups, especially those with underlying medical conditions and the elderly.

He highlighted the dual target of pandemic prevention and control along with developing socio-economy and ordered local authorities and sectors not to stay complacent and make all-out efforts to curb the community transmission of COVID-19.

“COVID-19 prevention is a long battle. Until there is a vaccine, we have to cohabit with the pandemic,” he said.

He praised localities for their creative response to the second outbreak including the establishment of a health ministry task force working in Đà Nẵng and the mobilisation of hundreds of medical workers for the central region. New technologies have been applied to trace infected persons and people in close contact with them.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long said the outbreak in Đà Nẵng City, Quảng Nam and Hải Dương provinces had been controlled. There will be new cases in the community in some localities in the coming days and more fatalities are predicted.

PM Phúc asked local authorities and the Ministry of Education and Training to hold discussions and submit a plan for organising the second period of the national high school exam in areas which had lockdowns lifted. — VNS