HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong speaks at a meeting on June 28. The city has divided its districts nto three groups with different levels of Covid-19 transmission - PHOTO: HCMC PRESS CENTER

HCMC – The HCMC government has divided the city's districts into three groups with different levels of Covid-19 transmission to work out appropriate coping solutions for each group, said municipal chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong.

The decision was made at a meeting of the municipal steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control on June 28 amid the raging pandemic in the city, which made the city the second largest coronavirus hotspot in Vietnam, the local media reported.

Accordingly, the extremely-high-risk group comprises the districts of Binh Tan, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, 8 and Tan Phu and part of Thu Duc City (formerly Thu Duc District). These areas have seen a steady rise in Covid-19 cases, with Binh Tan District having the most cases at 536, followed by District 8 with 245 cases and Hoc Mon District with 236 cases as of the afternoon of June 28.

These areas have also been home to many pandemic clusters with unknown sources of infection.

Meanwhile, Go Vap, Cu Chi, 1, 5, 4, 12, Binh Thanh and Tan Binh districts and part of Thu Duc City (formerly districts 2 and 9) were classified as having a high risk of Covid-19 transmission. Of them, Go Vap reported 176 cases as of yesterday afternoon and is home to the Revival Ekklesia Mission hotspot.

In addition, the districts with a risk of Covid-19 infection are 10, 11, 7, Phu Nhuan and Can Gio. These districts have confirmed a small number of Covid-19 cases.

Assessing the pandemic’s developments in the city, municipal chairman Phong said June 28 was the 12th consecutive day that the city had detected a triple-digit spike in Covid-19 cases in a single day.

The city has employed multiple anti-virus measures, even stricter than the prime minister’s Directive 16. However, the number of new Covid-19 cases remained high.

Therefore, Phong ordered serious compliance with the municipal government's Directive 10 on intensifying anti-virus measures citywide and a higher awareness among local residents.

He allowed the governments of Thu Duc City and districts to decide the lockdown of virus-hit areas and asked the municipal Department of Health to establish and send special teams to Thu Duc and districts to support them in the fight against Covid-19.

In industrial and export processing zones, the Saigon Hi-tech Park and the Quang Trung Software City, their management boards will take responsibility for the pandemic prevention and control there.

The municipal Department of Information and Communications should increase CCTV cameras at centralized quarantine centers.

Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen said in order to combat the pandemic, the city would spend more time on tracing work, launch a large-scale testing campaign to detect Covid-19 patients and accelerate the testing process.

The use of test kits is an important solution contributing to the quick detection of cases. As soon as the city receives test kits provided by the Government and other agencies, it would immediately conduct a large-scale testing campaign in industrial and export processing zones and places with many people and districts.