WHO Official Proposes Vietnam Enhance Long-term Efforts to Contain COVID-19

Dr. Kidong Park, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Vietnam, has proposed that Vietnam should increase its long-term efforts to curb the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) when drugs and vaccines for the disease have yet to be found, state media reported. Mr. Park made the proposal at a meeting with the national steering committee on fighting COVID-19, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on May 12. At the meeting, Mr. Park also hailed Vietnam’s recent efforts to contain the disease, saying that Vietnam kept itself updated with COVID-19 developments, shared information transparently, and applied measures quickly. The WHO official added that he wanted to spend time analyzing what Vietnam has done to deal with the disease and share that with the international community. He also affirmed that all details of COVID-19 patient No. 251’s death, which the Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MoH) announced as died due to non-COVID-19 problems, are correct. Vietnam has conducted 1,200-2,000 COVID-19 tests a day, bringing a total to 275,000 COVID-19 tests so far. The country is now focusing on preventing all sources of transmission from people repatriated from abroad. As of May 13 morning, Vietnam spent 27 consecutive days without community infection cases. The country’s COVID-19 tally has remained at 288 since May 7, with the number of patients under treatment down to 36 after three relapsed patients, all Brazilian, were discharged on May 12. (Nhan Dan, VietnamNews, VietnamNews, Bao Chinh Phu, VietnamBiz, VietnamNews, VietnamNet, Tuoi Tre, VietnamNews, VnExpress, VnExpress, english.Saigon Times)