It’s necessary to implement the government's request on social distancing like a wartime order in the fight against the coronavirus, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Chief Vuong Dinh Hue has said.

Hanoi’s Party chief Vuong Dinh Hue at a meeting on April 10. Photo: Zing

Nothing rather than strict implementation of social distancing could be the best way to mitigate damage caused by the pandemic, the municipal Party chief said at a meeting on Friday.

Hue made the statement after fairly loose application has been reported in some parts of Hanoi. He attributed the relaxed social distancing to people’s underestimation of contagion risk.

It seems that the news on low infections in Vietnam over the last few days has resulted in such common perception, local health experts have warned.

As a result, more people poured into streets and public places, challenging the city’s efforts to contain the pandemic and posing risk of community transmission.

Regarding the quarantine, Hanoi has accommodated roughly 55,000 Vietnamese nationals who are students, workers, and overseas Vietnamese coming from abroad in mass isolation centers.

In a related move, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung has repeatedly stressed the importance of social distancing during the two-week isolation period that began on April 1.

Chung quoted representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying that if relaxing social distancing appears at a time of community transmission, it’s hard for Vietnam to take action against the pandemic.

The mayor said that if just only 10% of the city’s population goes out, the prime minister’s stay-at-home request will become meaningless.

Hanoi remains the leading city in terms of coronavirus infections with 120 cases, of them 58 have fully recovered.