HANOI (REUTERS) - Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday (July 29) warned that every province and city in the country was at high risk of coronavirus infections, state broadcaster VTV reported, after new cases of coronavirus have been detected in the country's two largest cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, and in the central highlands of coffee belt, due largely to domestic travel.
"We have to act more swiftly and more fiercely in order to control the outbreak," VTV quoted Phuc as telling a meeting of government officials, adding that the new "wave" appears to be different to that seen in Vietnam earlier this year.
He said tourist hubs throughout the country should increase vigilance and that Danang, where the new infections were found last week, would be placed on "strict lockdown", the report said.
Vietnam, virus-free for months, was bracing for another wave of Covid-19 infections on Wednesday (July 29) after local media reported the first positive tests in the capital city Danang, Ho Chi Minh and a central highlands, linked to a recent outbreak in the central city of Danang.
A staff member at a Hanoi pizza restaurant who recently returned from Danang had tested positive for the coronavirus, state media reported on Wednesday, adding that authorities had closed the restaurant for disinfection.
The government had earlier issued a statement asking Hanoi to prepare medical equipment and materials for another "fight against Covid-19".
Thanks to a centralised quarantine programme and an aggressive contact-tracing system, Vietnam had managed to keep its coronavirus tally to just 446 cases, despite sharing a long and porous border with China.
Vietnam, with over 95 million people, is the most populous country in the world to have recorded no deaths from the virus.
Such record is now under threat following an outbreak last weekend in Danang, where tens of thousands of local tourists had been taking advantage of heavily discounted travel deals designed to support the country's virus-hit tourism industry.
The government on Tuesday suspended all flights to and from Danang for 15 days.
Its health ministry on Wednesday reported eight new locally transmitted coronavirus cases linked to three hospitals in Danang, taking the outbreak to 30 infections since the virus resurfaced at the weekend.
About 18,000 tourists who had been in Danang have returned to the southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City, authorities said on Tuesday.
The Hanoi authorities had earlier said they were expecting 15,000 to 20,000 to return for Danang.
The health ministry has yet to confirm a new Hanoi case.
Vietnam will repatriate 120 construction workers infected with Covid-19 from Equatorial Guinea on Wednesday, according to state media. The stricken workers will be treated at a hospital outside Hanoi.
The Southeast Asian nation is back on high alert after authorities on Saturday confirmed that new cases had appeared in Danang, the country's first community infections since April.
