HCM City (VNA) –Though the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Ho Chi Minh City has been falling,there haven’t been grounds for viewing COVID-19 as a seasonal flu and treatingit as a common illness, a local official has said.

The coronavirus deaths in the country's biggest hub have been very low over the past one week, less than four fatalities perday.

However, the pandemic is an unprecedented event, and there hasn’t been sufficientunderstanding about it to conclude that COVID-19 is similar to dengue fever ora popular illness, Chief of the municipal Health Department’s Office Nguyen ThiHuynh Mai told a meeting of the city’s steering committee for pandemic combatand economic recovery on February 14.

She urged people to continueenhancing anti-pandemic measures and not lower their guard.

Nguyen Hong Tam, DeputyDirector of the HCM City Centre for Disease Control, said the Ministry ofHealth hasn’t issued detailed guidance on the vaccination of children aged 5 -11, but the Health Department has proposed a plan on the work for 970,000local children of this age group to the municipal People’s Committee.

The inoculation of childrenwill be carried out on a voluntary basis, and unvaccinated ones are stillallowed to go to school as normal, he noted, adding that the health andeducational sectors will strive to persuade parents to allow their children be vaccinated.

After the Lunar New Yearholiday, the longest festival that always sees heavy traffic as people often rush for their family reunion, COVID-19 cases in HCM City grew slightly but have declined to lessthan 200 on February 13 and 14. The most important thing is that the number ofrelated deaths remains very low, Tam said, describing this as a highly positivesign.

New infections may increaseas schools have reopened, but the health and educational sectors are pledging utmostefforts to prevent virus transmission in schools, according to the official./.