Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Vu DucDam on July 12 asked Mekong Delta localities to raise guard against COVID-19 givena surge in local infections.

All of returnees from pandemic-hit areas have to makehealth declarations truthfully to facilitate the testing and quarantine work, Dam, who isalso head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control,said at an online meeting with representatives from 12 cities and provinces inthe Mekong Delta region.

Each locality should review their medical equipment, thecapacity of concentrated quarantine and treatment facilities, and personnel forCOVID-19 testing, the Deputy PM said.

He asked the cities and provinces to step up screentests in hospitals, promptly activate monitoring systems to get informationabout people displaying COVID-19 symptoms, and improve testing capacity.

The localities were also requested to re-organise treatmentsystems for COVID-19 patients, who, Dam said, should be classified into threegroups – patients with no or mild symptoms, patients with symptoms,and patients in critical conditions.

At the meeting, the participating officials shareddifficulties in pandemic prevention and control in their localities, mainly relatingto testing capacity.

Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said thelocalities are expected to record more COVID-19 cases in the time ahead, andurged them to better assign tasks, and seriously observe quarantine andlockdown regulations./.