Resilience is believed to be one of the good characteristics of people in Hanoi to help the city overcome Covid-19, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung has said.

Secretary of the Hanoi Party’s Committee Dinh Tien Dung. Photos: Thanh Hai/Kinh Te Do Thi

He believed that the locals’ self-assurance will guarantee containment of the virus, adding that a high degree of self-discipline and cultural values inherited in the thousand-year-old city have formed inner strengths against hardship.

"Hanoians will set an example for others in the fight against Covid-19 and they will surely be winners," Dung told media Wednesday [May 26].

The municipal Party chief called for all civil servants and civilians in the city to join the Covid-19 fight by following precautionary measures together for the common interest.

The combined efforts and strengths will push back the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted.

Dung checks quarantine work in Tay Ho district.

Efforts to bring the outbreak under control

Currently, the first and foremost mission is to mobilize all resources for massive testing, contact tracing, and quarantining affected areas like Times City Residential Area and T&T Group, Dung noted. 

Both authorities and local residents need to join the efforts and get ready for tougher countermeasures as the fight might be more complicated in the coming time, he warned.

"Each locality needs to check their anti-pandemic scenarios to be well-prepared by focusing on “four-in-place” principle: in-place force, in-place command, in-place resources, and in-place logistics," he suggested.

For such measures to work, each leader and level of the political system must be responsible for their own issues and for the sake of people in their places first. "Leaders who are irresponsible or distracted in the Covid-19 fight that might cause serious consequences would be punished," he stressed.

Regarding recent countermeasures, Dung said the city’s leadership has contemplated before making decisions in the spirit of putting the people’s interest first, minimizing damage, and bartering short-term profits for the people’s safety and long-term benefits.

So far, Hanoi has closed restaurants, cafés, barbershops, bars, karaoke lounges while prohibiting indoor and outdoor physical exercises and activities in public parks and gardens.

As of Thursday morning, Hanoi confirmed 344 infections, including one-third in two national hospitals: the Vietnam National Cancer Hospital (K Hospital) and the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the leading hospital in Covid-19 treatment.