Vice Chairman of the municipal People's Committee Chu Xuan Dung has requested relevant units to apply urgent measures to curb Covid-19 disease from spreading as Hanoi may continue to record new Covid-19 cases in the community in the time ahead.

"The Steering Committee for Covid-19 prevention and control from municipal to communal level must strictly comply with the Prime Minister's instructions and the tasks specified in the Hanoi mayor’s telegram," Mr. Dung said.

Medical staff takes student’s samples for Covid-19 testing in Xuan Phuong Primary School in Nam Tu Liem district. Photo: Thanh Dat

The vice chairman emphasized that if no swift action is taken to handle the outbreaks in the community, it is very likely that the pandemic would spread out.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC) Truong Quang Viet said that his center has found ways to increase capacity of Covid-19 testing and will ensure this work.

As there are numerous people coming back from the Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, the epicenters of the outbreak, more coronavirus carriers would be confirmed in the coming time, Mr. Viet said, adding that the Hanoi CDC recommends all suspected cases should immediately contact the health sector for testing.

The time from now until the Lunar New Year festival is the peak time to fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, leaders of the Ministry of Health as well as the People's Committee of Hanoi called on each citizen to be an anti-epidemic fighter.

Hanoi closes schools for online teaching to curb spread of coronavirus

On January 31, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training Pham Xuan Tien signed an official letter guiding schools in Hanoi to apply online teaching and learning in order to minimize the infection of novel coronavirus-caused respiratory sickness.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training has required that online teaching quality must be ensured to maintain teaching plan schedule.

The department has asked school principals to strictly manage the teaching time and plan of each teacher, urge teachers to prepare lectures and organize online teaching in accordance with the schools’ schedule and check content and quality of online teaching.

Hanoi has more than more than two million of students. The school year begins in September and ends in May and June of the next year.