Hanoi (VNA) - The risks of further coronavirus outbreaksremain ever-present and everyone must absolutely stay on guard, DeputyPrime Minister Vu Duc Dam said.

Whilethe recent explosion in locally infected cases recorded in Vietnam canmainly be traced back to Da Nang, especially the three hospitals in thecity, the risks of virus spread in the community remains significant, Dam said,requiring all localities and the public to be cautious. 

Hewas addressing an emergency meeting of the National Steering Committee forCOVID-19 Prevention and Control held in Hanoi on August 9.

“Noone can tell for certain that the coronavirus has been completely eliminated inthe community,” he said. 

Thevigilant spirit must be held high at all times, or a resurgence of the viruscould appear like it did recently after months of relaxed measures with no newlocally transmitted cases, Dam continued. 

Headded that if the country continues to well implement anti-pandemic measures,which have been tightened in the last two weeks since the discovery of thefirst case in Da Nang’s outbreak, "we have the confidence thatthe outbreak will not explode on a wider scale.” 

Notonly in the current epicentres of the outbreak like Da Nang orQuang Nam, all protocols are in all localities – with health workers and publicsecurity officers at the forefront – have been restarted and been constantlyactive, Dam said. 

Recently,the health ministry sent five inspection teams to local level to assess thereadiness, he said. 

Assoc.Prof. Tran Dac Phu, former Director of the Department ofPreventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, said anti-pandemic measureshave been carried out aggressively and effectively in Da Nang, which isnow under lockdown. 

Atthis point, it could be said that the outbreak in Da Nang is undercontrol, Phu said. 

LeQuang Cuong, former Deputy Minister of Health, asked that information campaignsbe enhanced in the future so that public awareness and community-minded spiritwould be raised, and everyone would not let their guards down, maintain properhygiene to protect themselves, their family, and the community in the newnormal. 

Regardingtests, the steering committee said capacity has been improving a lot comparedto previous outbreaks, including the production of test kits and diagnosticmachines. 

In DaNang, with the massive number of people needed to be tested in the community,the health ministry decided they would implement ‘pool testing’, wherespecimens collected from five people would be combined and tested via a singletest, said Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long. 

Ifthe test’s results return positive, then all those five people will be testedagain individually, Long said. 

Thiswill significantly speed up population-level screening, especially in thehigh-risk groups, the minister said. 

“However,no matter how much we raise our testing capacity, we could never be ableto conduct testing of all people, even in just a province, in a shorttimeframe,” Dam said.

“Therefore,the most important and effective measure is to identify cases, fast trace andfocus testing on high-risk groups.”  

In DaNang, health workers are processing about 8,000-9,000 specimens a day. 

Dam saidthrough the practical lessons and experience obtained in Da Nang recently,guidelines need to be compiled so that other localities could quickly deploynecessary measures when community cases are discovered.

Healso urged people to install health declaration and contact tracing apps likeNCOVI and Bluezone to better identify potential cases./.