All people who arrived from the northern provinces of Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, the country’s Covid-19 hotspots, and areas with active cases in 28 other cities and provinces would be tested for the novel coronavirus, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Xuan Dung has said.

The move came as the pandemic situation in Bac Giang, 50 kilometers from Hanoi, turned more serious. Health experts have said that the province’s outbreak is unpredictable and could last longer than expected.

Hanoi’s health workers take Covid-19 samples for people from provinces hit by the novel coronavirus. Photo: Kinhtedothi.vn

Since April 29, Hanoi has recorded 82 Covid-19 patients who have been infected in the community across the city.

Meanwhile, the pandemic situation in neighboring provinces of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh is increasingly serious (336 cases confirmed in Bac Giang and 252 others in Bac Ninh). A number of industrial zones in the two provinces has continuously recorded new Covid-19 patients.

“The biggest risk for the city now is the influx of people from Bac Giang and Bac Ninh since a large number of workers from the provinces live in Hanoi, posing a high risk for Hanoi," Dung stressed.

A report from the Hanoi Department of Health showed that there are more than 6,300 people working in the two provinces have come from Hanoi.

Dung said the city will assign relevant units to be on duty 24 hours a day standing ready to place the pandemic-hit areas on lockdown if it was needed, the municipal leader noted.

He reiterated the measures of detecting, urgent tracing, quick testing, and absolute isolation for people making close contact with Covid-19 patients so that the outbreaks can be curb in the shortest possible time.

“If cross-contamination occurs, the managers of the quarantine camps must be held responsible and be strictly sanctioned,” he required.

He said districts and towns are allowed to set up concentrated isolation areas with a capacity of at least 1,000 people.