Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam chaired the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control meeting on the new community cases. — Photo from the Ministry of Health

HÀ NỘI — Two community infections of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Việt Nam, the first local transmissions for almost two months.

One of the new cases is linked to a woman who tested positive for the new variant of coronavirus after arriving in Japan to work earlier this week.

It has not yet been determined if either of the new detections are the stronger strain of COVID-19, but officials say as there is a connection to the case in Japan, extra precautions should be taken.

One new patient is a 34-year-old Vietnamese woman who works at POYUN Company in Hải Dương Province. She had close contact with the 32-year-old woman from the same province, who had tested positive upon arrival in Japan.

She has been isolated after testing positive on Wednesday evening and is being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Đông Anh Commune, Hà Nội.

The second patient is a 31-year-old man, who is an employee of Vân Đồn International Airport, living in Hồng Hà Ward, Hạ Long City of Quảng Ninh Province. He developed a fever and cough and went to a hospital for check-up.

His sample test came back on Wednesday evening and was positive for coronavirus. He is now being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Đông Anh Commune, Hà Nội.

After receiving information from the Japanese authorities about the Hải Dương woman testing positive after entering Osaka, on January 27, Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long sent a working group, including leaders and health experts from the ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine, Department of Health Environment Management and the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to Hải Dương Province to support the local epidemiological investigation and emergency measures to respond to the situation.

“This working team is led by Associate Professor, Dr. Trần Như Dương – Deputy Director of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology – who has had experience in fighting epidemics in hot spots in the past year such as Sơn Lôi, Bình Thuận, Đà Nẵng,” the minister said.

“The group will set up a station in Hải Dương and coordinate with the province to immediately implement general anti-epidemic measures.”

On January 27, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, Head of the National Steering Committee for the prevention and control of COVID-19, held an urgent meeting with the Standing Steering Committee at the Ministry of Health.

Immediately after the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Đỗ Xuân Tuyên – Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, went to Hải Dương Province to direct the emergency prevention work in the province.

Minister Nguyễn Thanh Long said that the Ministry of Health has mobilised laboratory specialists from Bạch Mai Hospital, the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the University of Public Health and Hà Nội Medical University to Hải Dương early Thursday morning.

The Ministry of Health has asked the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases to help Hải Dương Province immediately establish a local system to provide on-the-spot treatment.

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam called on all the authority and experts to put their all-out efforts to deal with the situation so that in 10 days they could thoroughly control the outbreak in the province.

The Deputy Prime Minister also said since the case in Hải Dương was related to a case of new SARS-CoV-2 variant according to Japanese information, it is necessary to be especially careful, ensuring maximum safety for the epidemic prevention and control team. — VNS