Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked for extraefforts to quickly stamp out new COVID-19 outbreaks before the lunar New Yearfestival, which falls in mid-February.

The PM made the request at a permanent Cabinet meeting on the situation ofzoning off and dealing with newly-detected infections on January 29, just oneday after an urgent meeting with the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Preventionand Control on the sidelines of the ongoing 13th National Party Congress.

He said that several leaders, who are delegates to thecongress in Hanoi, returned to their localities to direct, or chaired onlinemeetings with their localities on disease prevention and control work.

The Health Ministry has also sent many experienced staff tosupport the affected localities in the fight against the pandemic.

The PM stressed that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 isspreading very quickly, that needs to take more rapid actions and extensivetesting, and quickly trace for anyone with possible contacts with the confirmedpatients.

Localities with community-transmitted infections shouldpractice social distancing at high-risk areas.

The Prime Minister also urged the Health Ministry to submita plan on buying COVID-19 vaccines to try serving people within the firstquarter of 2021./.