Health Ministry holds urgent meeting after domestic COVID-19 case found
VOV.VN - The Ministry of Health on November 30 convened an urgent meeting with relevant agencies, and Ho Chi Minh City Health Department representatives to direct the swift implementation of all epidemic prevention measures after a man in the southern metropolis was confirmed to contract the novel coronavirus from an imported case.
According information released at the urgent meeting, the new patient numbered 1347, is directly tied with patient 1342 who is a flight attendant and had been confirmed to get the virus on November 29.
After testing negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus twice, patient 1342 was allowed to undergo self-isolation at a boarding house in HCM City’s Tan Binh district. His third test result came back positive for the virus on November 28.
The three people coming into close contact with him were immediately placed in isolation and tested. Among them, the male friend became patient 1347 after being confirmed positive.
According to initial investigation results, there are 38 people having close contact with patient 1347, and 154 others having direct contact with them.
At the meeting, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long also urged all medical establishments in HCM City to heighten their vigilance, intensify screening measures for people with suspected symptoms, and rigorously carry out anti-COVID-19 measures
To cope the situation, the Ministry of Health, and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control issued an urgent message asking relevant ministries, centrally-run provincial and municipal People's Committees to strengthen the supervision and management of people entering the country amid the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic regionally and globally.
The new domestic transmission and three imported cases have raised the national infection tally to 1,347 so far.
There have been a total of 1,179 patients free from COVID-19 in the country to date, while the fatality count due to COVID-19 still stays at 35 and no patients are in critical condition at present.
Indeed, over 16,000 people are currently put in quarantine at hospitals, at home or at other quarantine sites throughout the country.
The newly detected domestic case has ended a nearly three-month period with no any single case of local transmission being found in the country.
