HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City has vowed to stem the spread of the newcoronavirus (nCoV) and that no one would die from the virus in the city, saidVice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem on February 9.

He made thestatement while meeting with a Ministry of Health working team, led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Truong Son.

As HCM Cityfaces a high risk of the nCoV spread, the city has deployed various precautiousmeasures to control the epidemic, Liem said.

The city haverequested departments and agencies as well as 24 districts to develop their own plan to respond to the real situation, heemphasised.

Despite beinga huge, densely-populated metropolis with a large number of foreigners comingin and out, the city is keeping the situation under control with no case of human-to-human transmissionreported so far, the leadersaid.

DeputyMinister of Health Nguyen Truong Son welcomed the city’s effort to contain theoutbreak, saying its preventive measures have proved effective. Besides threepeople infected with the virus after returning from China’s epidemic-hit areas, the city has no newinfection.

However, Sonvoiced his worry over the fact that there are only two quick response teams in eachdistrict of the city which he said is not enough. He suggested the city to add more of such teams to create agreater barrier against the virus.

“Ho Chi MinhCity needs to increase the number of quick response teams, build more quarantine areas for suspected cases at district-level hospitals and minimise the transferof the suspected cases to higher-level hospitals that can cause overloads and in-hospitalinfection,” the deputyminister said.

Assoc. Prof,Dr. Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of the municipal Department of Health, said threepeople so far have been confirmed to carry the new coronavirus in the city, oneof who has been discharged from hospital; 27 suspected cases have been tested negative with the virus.

Localhospitals have monitored 39 people who had had close contact with the infectedpersons, he said, adding that the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM Cityhave admitted 44 suspected cases, including one confirmed infection.

The city plans to inaugurate an acute respiratory disease hospital on February 10 to prepare the cityin case the coronavirus spreads more widely in the community, he said./.