Schools in Hanoi have applied tighter measures on Covid-19 prevention and decided to close for Lunar New Year break a week earlier amid continuous reports of new community cases of the viral disease in the city and northern localities.

The decisions were made following the unpredictable evolution of the pandemic, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Xuan Dung said on January 31.

Accordingly, all schools from kindergarten level will close between February 1 and February 16 to prevent the spreading of the novel coronavirus.

A leader of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training said that currently some 25,000 officials, teachers and employees of the city’s education sector have to stay at home as they are related to a Covid-19 patient in Nam Tu Liem district.

Functional forces continue to disinfect Xuan Phuong Primary School in Hanoi. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

Particularly, a third grader at Xuan Phuong Primary School in Nam Tu Liem district was infected with the novel coronavirus, then 80 students and teachers exposed to the child patient have been put under quarantined since January 30.

Hanoi recorded five more Covid-19 cases in Nam Tu Liem district, all of whom had come into contact with Patient No. 1694", a 41-year-old man who returned from the pandemic-hit province of Hai Duong, raising its tally to nine in the last four days.

"More efforts must be made to trace F2 and F3 cases," said Vice Chairman Chu Xuan Dung.

As a step to strengthen anti-Covid-19 measures, schools in Hanoi must review and list all staff members and students who had direct and indirect contact with Covid-19 patients and report to the local authorities, Mr. Dung added.

He urged people to further comply with Covid-19 prevention regulations to prevent the spread of the disease and conduct precautionary measures of quick testing, contact tracing, masking up in public places, and washing hands.

The vice chairman stressed again that the city’s agencies will have to continue disseminating the "5K" message of the Ministry of Health, considering the good observance of the 5K is a "steel shield" to protect people from the Covid-19 pandemic. 5K means "Khau trang" (face mask) - "Khu khuan" (disinfection) - "Khoang cach" (distance) - "Khong tu tap" (no gatherings) - "Khai bao y te" (health declaration).

Fourteen new community transmissions of Covid-19 were confirmed in Vietnam on Sunday morning following the latest outbreak in eight localities with 221 community transmissions across the country just a few days before the Lunar New Year (Tet), Vietnam's biggest holiday.

After almost two months without any locally-transmitted cases, Vietnam was blindsided by a new wave of domestic Covid-19 cases in different northern localities on Thursday.

With the latest confirmations, Vietnam has registered 1,781 Covid-19 patients and 35 deaths.