Volunteer medical students take samples from people in Ward 3 in HCM City’s District 4 to test for COVID-19. VNA/VNS.Photo Hồng Giang

HCM CITY— HCM City should adopt drastic preventive measures to reduce COVID-19 incidence by the end of July and bring the pandemic under control by August, Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình told a meeting held on July 2.

It should carry out mass screening and rapid tests in the community in high-risk areas, he said.    

Though its preventive measures are sufficient, it should take more measures as required in the current situation, especially the rapid spread of new virus variants, he said.

He also said the city should ensure adequate supply of essential goods for consumers.

Chairman of the city People’s Committee, Nguyễn Thành Phong, said the current wave of COVID is more complex than the three earlier ones.

From June 19 to 30, with social distancing in force under Directive No.10, the average number of patients found was 100 a day including 35 at hospitals, which shows the city’s detection measures have been effective, he said.

New incidence would continue to increase because the speed of spread of the delta virus variant is rapid, according to the chairman.

He instructed relevant authorities in districts and Thủ Đức City to classify high risk groups to strengthen preventive measures and speed up the use of rapid tests in the community.

They should stop using schools for quarantine and consider the Ministry of Health’s guidance on home quarantine for people who have contact with COVID patients, he said.  

The HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority and Department of Health should complete by July 5 the safety inspection of 22 enterprises that have registered to continue operating even if locked down, he said.

The city is setting up more quarantine facilities and increasing the number of beds to 10,000 as COVID incidence rises.  By Sunday morning the number of confirmed infections in the city was 5,268.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Trường Sơn said the city continued to have several problems in testing in the community and using rapid tests, which it should quickly resolve.

COVID prevention and control measures at quarantine and locked down areas remained ineffective, he said.

His ministry had sent 400,000 more doses of vaccines to the city, he added.

On July 3 the city stopped mass community screening to focus on testing the 89,275 candidates and 17,052 proctors preparing for the national high school graduation examination on July 7-8.  

The test results will be published on July 4.

The Ministry of Transport has approved the suspension of flights from HCM City to Thanh Hóa, Quảng Nam, and Thừa Thiên Huế provinces to safeguard them. VNS