The central province of Thanh Hoa organised a conference on July 2 todiscuss the implementation of a plan to prevent and handle any emergingMERS-CoV cases.

Under the plan, the province’shealth sector is focused on prevention, supervision and earlyidentification of MERS-CoV cases to prevent its spread to the community.

The conference also discussed issues concerningMERS-CoV in the world and subsequent lessons learned, preventing andcontrol the disease at grassroots health centres and supervising testrooms and sampling methods.

Le Van Sy, DeputyDirector of the province’s General Hospital, said the hospital wasprepared to receive MERS-CoV patients.

The Thanh Hoa People’s Committee asked the health sector and other sectors to formulate response plans for their areas.

On the same day in HCM City, between 250 and 300 tourist guides,receptionists and baggage porters in the city were informed of the stateof MERS-CoV and how to correctly identify and handle it.

The activity was organised by the Media and Health Education Centreunder the HCM City Department of Health and coordinated withSaigontourist, a travel company.

The centrepreviously organised a similar event for flight attendants, pilots andcustoms officers for Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific.

Around 1,800 people from the Middle East and the Republic of Korea,two countries currently experiencing an outbreak of MERS-CoV, fly intoHCM City each day, putting the city at a high risk of MERS-CoV.

The city also asked hotels and guesthouses to report any persons with suspected MERS-CoV to health centres.-VNA