All citizens must wear facemasks outdoors

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh ordered strict punishments for those who do not wear facemasks outdoors, especially in the two COVID-19 hotspots of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh.

The Government chief made the order an urgent online meeting with leaders of the two provinces on Wednesday morning.

The COVID-19 situation in the aforesaid localities has been gradually controlled as recent infection cases have been quarantined before testing positive for the virus, said PM.

However, transmission risk remains high as the COVID-19 variant found there is more transmissible, requiring more drastic and effective measures to prevent spread of the virus from communities to industrial parks and vice versa.

The top priority now is to push back COVID-19 pandemic in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, PM Pham stressed.

He tasked subordinate levels to increase capacity of field hospitals, human resource and medical equipment to the two localities in a bid to ensure fast detection of new cases.

Speaking at the meeting, Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said Bac Giang must focus on containing COVID-19 outbreaks at industrial parks in order to soon resume operation of business production while Bac Ninh needs to stamp out outbreaks in communities to prevent spread to industrial parks.

Nguyen announced that the ministry will allocate 300,000 vaccine doses to Bac Giang and Bac Ninh and help the two localities to complete vaccination within the two weeks./.