Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have requested three local hospitals to make preparations for the treatment of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients if necessary.

Vice-chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem has sent an urgent document to lower-level administrations, asking them to continue COVID-19 prevention and control efforts across the metropolis.

The city’s Department of Health was tasked with coordinating with relevant agencies to further monitor and perform COVID-19 tests on all patients with symptoms of respiratory diseases at local medical facilities, as well as on high-risk cases in the community.

Local pharmacies are required to advise medicine buyers with potential COVID-19 symptoms to seek health check-ups at hospitals and medical centers.

All medical facilities must require patients to fill out health declaration forms in order to promptly detect people who have previously been to the central city of Da Nang, as well as other localities where community infections were recently recorded.

Vice-chairman Liem asked two makeshift hospitals in Cu Chi and Can Gio Districts, as well as the City Children's Hospital in Binh Chanh District, to be ready for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, especially those who are critically sickened.

The Department of Information and Communications will be in charge of raising awareness of COVID-19 among local residents, and sternly penalize those who spread false information on the pandemic.

The Department of Transport will examine all vehicles coming from Da Nang and localities with newly-recorded COVID-19 cases.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally was at 446, with 369 having recovered as of Wednesday morning.

The country has documented 30 community-based cases since Saturday last week, ending a streak of 99 days without a single local transmission, according to a Tuoi Tre News count.

Twenty-six of the patients, including three critical cases, are in Da Nang, three in Quang Nam, and one in Quang Ngai Province.

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