HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong speaks at an anti-Covid-19 meeting on May 24. HCMC Chairman Phong advised people aged over 60 to stay home and avoid going out – PHOTO: NLDO

HCMC – During an anti-Covid-19 meeting on May 24, HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong advised people aged over 60 to stay home and avoid going out to minimize the local transmission risk of Covid-19.

The elderly are vulnerable, while their antibodies are weak, the local media reported, citing Phong.

Due to the complicated development of Covid-19, HCMC Chairman Phong also asked public employees and guests visiting State agencies to make health declarations from May 25, while each State agency must form a Covid-19 safety team to monitor the guests.

State employees and workers should work from home and contact healthcare centers for guidelines if they develop symptoms of a cough and fever, he said.

The HCMC chairman also ordered the municipal Department of Information and Communications to work with the HCMC Department of Home Affairs to prepare for the operation of the Covid-19 Prevention and Control Command Center.

The HCMC Department of Health was told to review the Covid-19 infection prevention and control at healthcare facilities and ask hospitals to practice social distancing and minimize the number of caregivers. Each hospital must have a temporary quarantine area, Phong said.

Besides, hospitals should ask medical workers, patients, caregivers and visitors to install the Bluezone health declaration app, he said.

Phong also told the management boards of export processing zones and industrial zones to ask production companies there to reduce the number of workers working together at the same time, while offering training courses for Covid-19 response to avoid infections at these parks.

The number of locally-infected Covid-19 cases at industrial parks and export processing zones has accounted for 66.2% of the total community transmitted cases reported since April 27, Phong said.