Hanoi (VNA) - The spread of COVID-19in central Da Nang city and Quang Nam province has been gradually contained andthe situation is expected to be under control by late August, according toActing Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

At a meeting of the national steering committeefor COVID-19 prevention and control in Hanoi on August 18, Long said the numberof new infections in Da Nang and Quang Nam has fallen in recent days, from an averageof 20 cases a day from August 3 to 9 to about 10 cases from August 10 to 17.

New hotspots may still appear nationwide, hewarned, and he demanded that all localities remain on high alert to detect newcases in a timely manner, as the sooner infections are found the more effectiveefforts to stamp out the disease will be.

He pointed out that although experts have issuedstrong warnings, people are not sufficiently vigilant against transmission.

He called for dramatic solutions to slow down andlimit transmissions, calling on all people to install the Bluezone contacttracing app and the NCOVI health declaration app on their smartphones.

Regarding the development of a vaccine, Tran DacPhu, advisor to Vietnam’s public health emergency operations centre, said manycountries have conducted COVID-19 vaccine tests on animals before conducting humantrials.

If vaccines used in other countries areimported, Vietnam will not test them on animals but will do so on humans toensure their effectiveness and safety. This process often lasts between sixmonths and a year or even several years before widespread vaccinations, henoted.

Before effective vaccines or specialisedmedicine are available, people must remain on guard for a long period of timein a spirit of “safely adapting to the pandemic”, experts have urged.

They also proposed warning levels for COVID-19be raised, especially in major cities and populous regions, while protectingmedical facilities, retirement homes, and social protection centres, as well asfrontline forces, from transmission.

Members of the steering committee asked theMinistry of Health to continue enhancing testing capacity and requested that localitiesstrictly quarantine the more than 100,000 foreign experts and workers enteringthe country.

Asking for more technical solutions to tracehigh-risk people, they said that aside from encouraging people to use Bluezoneand NCOVI, it is also necessary to make it compulsory for foreigners enteringVietnam or those with second- or third-hand contact with confirmed cases toinstall these apps./.