Official points out reasons for fourth Covid-19 wave in Vietnam

Health workers take samples for Covid-19 testing at an industrial zone in Bac Giang Province (Photo by Quang Vinh)

By Phong Lan

Deputy Head of the World News Desk Dantri Online Newspape

HANOI: Illegal migrants, lax management at quarantine areas, and people’s ignoring virus prevention regulations have been pointed out as the main causes for the new Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam.

Speaking at a government meeting on May 20, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh warned that the latest pandemic wave has been harder to predict.

According to the Vietnamese government leader, Covid-19 has attacked local industrial parks in localities which do not have much experience in Covid-19 prevention and control. Meanwhile, neighbouring countries such as Laos and Cambodia are still facing the virus spread.

Chinh mentioned a large number of Vietnamese people returning from abroad, adding more pressure to the country’s Covid-19 fight. In addition, the rising number of illegal migrants into the country from neighbouring Laos, China, and Cambodia have also posed a big threat of virus spreading.

“The appearance of the highly contagious UK and Indian variants of Covid-19 found in many cities and provinces has further challenged the country,” he added.

The official also noted that many Vietnamese people and agencies have recently ignored Covid-19 prevention regulations following a long period of time reporting no locally-transmitted infections.

“Lax management and supervision from local authorities have led to violations in Covid-19 prevention and control, and then resulted in this large virus outbreak,” the official stressed.

Chinh emphasised that the strict application of the Ministry of Health’s regulations on facemask, disinfection, distance, no gatherings and health declarations and vaccination expansion policy were the most effective measures to fight against Covid-19 in Vietnam.

(Health workers take samples for Covid-19 testing at an industrial zone in Bac Giang Province. Photo by Quang Vinh)

The South East Asian country which has been known for its success in containing the coronavirus, is facing the fourth and the largest outbreak so far with hundreds of new infections reported daily. By the end of April this year, the country had reported just over 3,000 infection cases since the first outbreak in early 2020. But just roughly a month after the fourth outbreak, nearly 2,000 more infections have been recorded.

Schools have been closed and many residential areas and industrial zones have been put under locked down for virus prevention.