Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Van Phong speaks at the press briefing. (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn)

Mr. Phong told a press briefing on Friday that the social distancing order under the Prime Minister’s Directive 16 has been in place since  July 24 amid the surge of COVID-19 cases.

Every day the city records an average of 60-80 new cases, sometimes over 100 cases per day with complicated clusters and unlinked cases in the community in which source of infection has not been identified.