COVID-19 infection risk remains high in Vietnam, says Health Minister

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said on October 24 that Vietnam is likely to face another outbreak of COVID-19 coming from a massive influx of people returning to their hometowns from coronavirus hotpots.

Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long fears another COVID-19 outbreak may occur in Vietnam if returnees from southern coronavirus hotspots are not closely monitored.

Long confirmed that the outbreak has been brought under control in major coronavirus hotspots like Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An and other localities in the south.

However, after travel restrictions were eased, large numbers of people have fanned out to their home in other localities in the south-western, central and northern regions, posing a high risk of another outbreak to occur in these regions.

Newly detected cases in Phu Tho, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa and some other southwestern localities are sourced from these returnees, said Long at a conference to review 10 days of implementing a new strategy of safe and flexible adaptation to and effective control of COVID-19.

“We fear a large outbreak may occur in the near future, so localities must raise their vigilance to a new level,” warned the minister.

According to the minister, the returnees must be placed in quarantine and closely monitored along with COVID-19 testing as regulated.

“A greater efforts should be made to nip in a bud another coronavirus outbreak,” he stressed.

He suggested that localities prepare adequate equipment and enhance medical capacity to effectively control another COVID-19 outbreak if it occurs and to reduce the mortality rate.

He also urged localities to step up vaccinations as a means of better protecting local residents from virus infection.

Vietnam has documented more than 4,000 new cases over the past 24 hours, raising its tally of infections to 888,940.

It has also confirmed 53 more COVID-19 deaths during the day, taking to 21,673 the total number of fatalities.

About 73 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, with 21 million people getting their second shot.