A truck enters Bắc Giang Province's Lục Nam District after the district eases social distancing from June 7. —VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The top party leader in the northern province of Bắc Giang, the region hit hardest by the fourth wave of COVID-19, is confident the locality will eradicate outbreaks within the next two weeks.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Dương Văn Thái was speaking at a meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Monday.

He said the province has basically zoned off and narrowed down sources of infection. Local authorities have started to ease social distancing measures in Lục Nam and Yên Thế districts while health workers continue screening tests at concentrated quarantine sites and lockdown areas to detect suspected cases.

The province has allowed 46 businesses which meet COVID-19 prevention and control requirements to resume operations with more than 7,500 workers.

Bắc Giang is the current biggest COVID-19 hotspot in Việt Nam with 3,211 community infection cases confirmed as of June 7 since April 27 when the fourth COVID-19 wave broke out, accounting for more than half of the total cases over the period.

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said Bắc Giang had had a methodical approach in carrying out periodical and non-stop screening tests at quarantine centres and lockdown areas while reducing the density of workers at hotspot and quickly managing outbreaks.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of People’s Committee of northern Bắc Ninh Province Vương Quốc Tuấn said local authorities had organised inspection teams to regularly check COVID-19 prevention and control tasks at industrial zones and increased testing with the aim of bringing the pandemic in Thuận Thành District under control by June 20.

Deputy PM Đam instructed Bắc Ninh Province to focus on completely handling outbreaks in Thuận Thành District and closely supervise the situation in the province’s Bắc Ninh City where outbreaks have been recorded in both residential areas and industrial zones.

He proposed the Ministry of Health discuss with Bắc Ninh authorities to increase forces and equipment for testing.

Regarding outbreaks in HCM City, experts at the meeting said the situation had been controlled but neighbouring localities still needed to pay attention to cases relating to outbreaks in residential areas where staff working in industrial zones live. — VNS