Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung on June 2 shared experience in fighting Covid-19 with heads of city government in the world during an online mayoral meeting within the framework of the Cities Against Covid-19 (CAC) Global Summit, Kinhtedothi.vn reported.

At the meeting, which is an initiative by Seoul mayor Park Won-soon gathering heads of 40 big cities around the world, Chung spoke highly of the idea, considering it one of the effective measures to deal with the pandemic and a venue for the cities to cooperate in addressing economic woes caused by it.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung speaks at the online mayoral meeting within the framework of the Cities Against Covid-19 Global Summit. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

Chung told participants that Hanoi, with a population of over 8 million, has so far reported 114 Covid-19 infections, of whom 113 have been given the all-clear.

The capital city has gone through 48 days without any community infection, the Hanoi mayor said. Vietnam has reported 328 cases and no fatality so far.

He stressed that right after the outbreak of the epidemic, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Nguyen Phu Trong issued an appeal to the entire nation to take drastic prevention measures. In line with this appeal, many directives and their strict enforcement on disease prevention and control have been released based on the spirit of "fighting epidemic like fighting the enemy" and prioritizing people’s health over economic benefits, all have translated in the initial success in containing the disease.

Besides, Hanoi quickly traced people in possible contact with Covid-19 patients. All people with direct contacts have been quarantined at designated facilities, while those in contact with suspected people have been quarantined at their houses under the close monitoring of local health staff.

In addition to rapid response and contact tracing, Hanoi has made public all information regarding the Covid-19 pandemic via different means of communication. The city has also actively applied new technologies in controlling the disease, such as the development the Hanoi Smartcity app to monitor quarantined people, Chung added.

Moreover, Hanoi's authorities conducted rapid tests and active treatment free of charge for all Covid-19 patients and suspected people.

Mayors from other cities also shared Covid-19 response experience, highlighting the importance of people’s support. They emphasized the ability to produce symptomatic medicines and efforts to focus on researching Covid-19 vaccines.

The mayors adopted the Seoul Statement on solidarity and cooperation to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The statement focused on building an inter-city cooperation network to share and facilitate the implementation of measures in response to newly-emerging infectious diseases.