Hanoi (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City has been askedto work harder to impose restriction measures on the smallest possible scale soas not to prolong large-scale social distancing.

Speaking via teleconference on June 17, DeputyMinister of Health Nguyen Truong Son, who is currently in HCM City, said thelocal COVID-19 situation remains “very complicated” after 15 days of socialdistancing, with several chains of infection still detected in the community.

“However, in terms of epidemiology, we haveopportunities to control the chains of infection,” he noted.

HCM City has readied a treatment plan for the scenario of recording 5,000patients and also geared up equipment for severe cases, he said, adding that ithas devised a plan to implement the local vaccination campaign, expectedto begin on June 19.

From June 18, the city is going to pilot self-collectionof samples for COVID-19 testing and home-quarantine of F1s (persons with directcontact with confirmed cases). It will also step up examination at concentratedquarantine sites to prevent cross-infection as well as in the community andindustrial parks, Son said.

Regardingthe 836,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses donated by the Japanese Government thathave been transported to HCM City, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’sCommittee Duong Anh Duc said authorities have identified the priority groupsand devised the inoculation plan with the aim of vaccinating 200,000 people perday.

The city is also working to raise its testing capacityto 30,000 individual tests per day, he added.

Speaking from Hanoi, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, head of the NationalSteering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, said as HCM City is abig municipality experienced in the pandemic combat, its restriction measuresshould be carried out on the smallest possible scale.

As social distancing aims to slow down the spread ofthe coronavirus to discover clusters and transmission sources and identify theaffected areas to seal off, the city should strive not to extend large-scalesocial distancing, which has lasted for 14 days.

Authorities need to speed up epidemiological surveysto classify “safe” areas for easing restrictions while control over high-riskzones must be tightened, Dam went on.

For industrial parks, the Deputy PM requestedthe city to sustain “strong” measures and increase screening tests there so asto detect any COVID-19 cases within the first three days since their infection.

He also asked for quick completion of guidelines forthe pilot home-quarantine of F1s and self-collection of samples for testing.

As of June 17 evening, Vietnam documented atotal of 12,150 COVID-19 cases, including 10,483 locally transmitted ones. Thenumber of cases since April 27, when the latest resurgence began, amounted to8,913, according to the Ministry of Health.

On the day, HCM City recorded 137 infections, raising the total number of cases to 1,197./.