Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has contained well theCOVID-19 pandemic but yet to win over it, Deputy Prime Minister Vu DucDam, head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention andControl, said at a meeting of the committee in Hanoi on May 21.

Along with the world, the fight against the pandemic maylast long, and Vietnam must be always in the readiness status, the Deputy PMstressed.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said morethan 5 million COVID-19 cases, including 325,000 deaths, have been recorded in215 countries and territories nationwide.

In Southeast Asia, there are 72,600 cases and nearly2,300 fatalities. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Timor-Leste have so far reportedno deaths caused by the acute respiratory disease.

Vietnam has gone 35 straight days without communityinfections and the national count remains at 324, Long told the meeting.

The British man, designated as Patient 91 who is beingtreated at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, has tested negative forSARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the disease, for six times, andhis lung function has improved as compared with the previous days.

Regarding Flight VN001 from the US to Hanoi on May 16,Long said the test results of all 25 crew members came out negative.

All of the 299 passengers returning from Thailand onMay 18 have also been put under quarantine at concentrated facilities and theirtest results were negative, the official added.

Although no community infections have been recordedover the past 35 days, competent forces have still maintained their activeresponse and vigilance against the epidemic, Long said.

Committee members shared the views on the risk oftransmission from Vietnamese returning from abroad, foreign experts andlabourers, diplomatic and official passport holders, crew members and residentstravelling through borders.

They, therefore, urged the Ministry of Transport andlocalities to continue tightening control over passengers entering Vietnam, andseriously observe quarantine regulations.

Local authorities and the public security sector haveto guide the grant of visas for foreigners and prepare quarantine facilities,they said./.