At Da Nang International Airport (Photo:VNA)

The new patients, aged between 24 and 70, include seven who are under treatment and four health workers at the hospital.

At present, they are being quarantined and treated at Da Nang Hospital.

The Steering Committee’s Treatment Sub-committee said that 365 patients, or 84.7 percent, have fully recovered. Among the active patients, five tested negative for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 once and three negative at least twice.

There are currently 11,954 people who had close contact with COVID-19 patients or entering Vietnam from pandemic-hit regions being quarantined, including 232 at hospitals, 10,922 at concentrated quarantine facilities, and 800 at home.

COVID-19: More flights for passengers stranded in Da Nang

The Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam (CAAV) has asked airlines to mobilise aircraft to take passengers out of the central city of Da Nang before 0:00am on July 28.

The administration requested airlines urgently send flight plans to its Air Transport Department for review and approval.

On the morning of July 27, airlines organised some flights to Da Nang with the aim of carrying passengers out of the city. The number of passengers buying tickets, however, fell short of expectations.

CAAV, however, still requires that airlines keep their flight plans and not cancel flights, in case of any sudden increase in demand following Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s guidance on the implementation of social distancing in Da Nang from the afternoon of July 27.

CAAV previously asked airport authorities to monitor flights from Da Nang at the request of the PM, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the Ministry of Transport, and the Ministry of Health, and to keep track of passengers traveling from Da Nang to other localities to ensure timely information in case passengers are found to have COVID-19.

Da Nang International Airport is to use its international terminal to operate domestic flights.

If there is a request to quarantine passengers on flights from Da Nang to Hanoi and HCM City, CAAV and Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) are ready to organise health checks and quarantining for all passengers in the international terminals at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat International Airports, in line with guidance from the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Railway Corporation has said that given the complex developments surrounding COVID-19 in Da Nang, it will add more trains from the city to Hanoi and HCM City from July 27.

It will also change tickets without charge and return fares to passengers who purchased tickets to or from Da Nang, Tam Ky, and Quang Ngai stations between July 27 and August 12.

In order to ensure the safety of passengers and employees, the corporation has directed units to continue to strictly implement measures and abide by regulations on COVID-19 prevention at stations and on trains.

In the next few days, based on the actual situation and the travel needs of passengers, the railway sector will continue to adjust train schedules based on directions from the Government and the Ministry of Transport.

Meeting seeks solutions to curb spread of COVID-19

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam chaired a meeting in Hanoi on July 27 to roll out measures preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The meeting was convened after four community transmissions of COVID-19 were recorded on July 25 and 26 – three in Da Nang and one in Quang Ngai.

According to a report tabled at the meeting, tests are being conducted for around 4,000 staff members at three hospitals in Da Nang where the newly-detected patients had visited.

At the same time, 10,000 blood samples from the community will also be collected for testing.

According to Acting Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, the ministry has yet to determine the source of the community transmission in Da Nang.

He said the virus strain detected in the new cases is different from the five strains found earlier in the country, adding that the exact source of infection remains unknown but it was possibly imported in early July.

All places related to the new cases have been isolated, which are the Da Nang Hospital, Hospital C Da Nang, and the Da Nang Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Hospital.

The ministry advised people who had arrived in or left Da Nang as from July 1 to fill in medical declarations and inform the local authorities and health officials for health monitoring.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy PM Dam, who is also head of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control, underscored that all localities around the country must strengthen preventive measures.

He stressed the need to fulfil two major targets - extinguishing the pandemic quickly and maintaining social stability - and highlighted the significance of close coordination between medical, public security, and military forces./VNA