Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son

Son said they would not try to find the patient zero in Danang, instead, contact tracing and quarantining to find and control new outbreaks was more important. Danang is carrying out 8,000-10,000 tests a day. HCM City Pasteur Institute will help Danang Hospital 199 in carrying out the tests. The National Institute Of Hygiene And Epidemiology will help with contact tracing and design quarantine plans.

Even though the outbreak at three hospitals in Danang has been brought under control, the city still needs much help with medical staff and equipment. Many nurses, doctors and family members have been infected. They also have many patients in critical condition due to underlying conditions. The contact tracing task alone needs large numbers of staff. Danang needs help in building new field hospitals and treating new patients at Hoa Vang Medical Centre and Danang Lung Hospital.

Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said, "Danang is lacking medical staff so other localities must quickly train anyone who is working, have retired or still at university to help."

C Hospital will reopen on August 7.

According to Son, the situation in Danang is more complicated than in Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital outbreak. They have detected new cases that are not related to three hospitals in the outbreak. He went on to say that the number of new cases would continue to rise and may reach a peak in the next 10 days.

"Contact tracing and quarantining the new outbreak have been strongly carried out but we can't relax. Everyone should be extra careful in the next 10 days and follow all preventive measures," Son said. Dtinews