Medical workers collect testing samples of people living in Hoàng Mai 1 residential groups in Nếnh Town of Bắc Giang Province. VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — The northern province of Bắc Giang on early Tuesday afternoon reported more than 300 new SARS-CoV-2 cases, all people in areas under social distancing measures regulations.

The cases were discovered after the health ministry, provincial authorities and medical workers spent the last three days ramping up testing efforts at all industrial parks, companies and residential areas where workers live in the province.

Trần Như Dương, Deputy Director of National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said the source of infections was initially assumed to be factories in industrial parks or residential areas of workers as they were in small spaces with a high population density, creating favourable conditions for the spread of the coronavirus, particularly its more contagious variants.

The Ministry of Health immediately asked to lock down the workers’ dormitories, particularly apartment buildings.

Such areas will be considered concentrated quarantine areas and regular tests will be offered to workers there.

The ministry has held a meeting with its special team in Bắc Giang and the province’s Health Department to ensure a timely response to the surge in cases.

On Tuesday morning, the health ministry confirmed 132 COVID-19 cases in Bắc Giang. Since April 27, the province has recorded 1,156 out of the 2,506 cases reported across Việt Nam, becoming the biggest hot spot since the pandemic began. — VNS