Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted an online conference on fighting COVID-19 with HCM City

The Prime Minister said it was a difficult decision and a thorough consideration to decide to impose Directive 16 on social distancing in HCM City but it was necessary at this time. The Prime Minister highlighted the strong determination to contain the pandemic in the city and neighboring provinces saying it’s a top priority to protect people’s lives, health, and safety. He stressed the importance of ensuring basic necessities for people. He called for consensus, stronger determination, greater efforts, and more effective action from the whole political system and people to fight the pandemic.

He asked the city to prioritize containing the epidemic to return to normal soon.

'The more difficulties we face, the more united we should stay. We need to promote consensus and wisdom of everyone, select the best solutions, mobilize the strength of the whole political system to fight the pandemic, stabilize the situation. We must stay calm, patient, and strong to achieve our set targets and pursue our solutions while being flexible and creative to adapt to specific situation. The fight against the disease in HCM city is unprecedented requiring us to closely follow the situation, learn from experience and promptly adjust our measures.'

The Prime Minister promised to work closely with HCM City and asked ministries to fulfill their assigned tasks in the fight against COVID-19.