Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (Photo: Zing.vn)

At a government meeting to review the organization of the traditional lunar new year festival and Vietnam’s response to acute pneumonia diseases caused by the new corona virus, he called for officials to closely monitor the situation and file timely reports to ensure an effective response. He urged the 10 special teams assembled to deal with the outbreak to proceed with care and make no mistakes. He said: "The government is closely monitoring the epidemics and will mobilize more resources and forces to prevent the outbreak. We are controlling the situation but the risk is high because we border China and has a lot of trade and tourism exchanges with China. We need to be strongly resolute in fighting the disease."

The Prime Minister asked travel companies not to bring tourists to affected areas and vice versa. He stressed the importance of increasing communications on disease prevention and response and update the public with the disease development: "Communications play a very important role and we need to strengthen communications to update the people on the disease to help them not to get panic. They should be aware of the risks to take prompt preventive measures."