The move came after Dzung heard nationwide reports of the epidemic recently.

He also told the units to continue implementing the direction of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and Directive No 10/CT-Ttg, issued on February 25 by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on preventing and fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.

Dung said the units had to focus on preventing and fighting COVID-19 and actively co-operate with relevant agencies to deal with situations arising in the process of preventing and controlling COVID-19 in order to stabilise people’s daily lives soon.

The units were assigned to work with the press to strengthen dissemination of the ministry’s directions related to COVID-19 prevention and control, he said.

He required the units to review and grasp the situation of labour and employment of domestic companies, cooperatives and groups as well as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies to assist them in stabilising their production.

The units were asked to encourage the companies to prepare enough raw materials for production to ensure the life of labourers, he added.

He also requested the units to work with localities to closely monitor labourers, who often went through trails and openings in the border provinces.

The relevant units had to build plans to receive Chinese labourers returning to Viet Nam to work following regulations. All the labourers had to strictly follow instructions of the Ministry of Health on health checks and quarantine, he said.

Additionally, the units were told to promote the application of “Connecting overseas labourers” (COLAB SOS), developed by the ministry’s Centre of Overseas Labour, he said.

They should encourage overseas labourers, especially labourers working in Daegu and Gyeongbuk provinces in South Korea, to limit travel, not go to epidemic areas and not leave the country to avoid the spread of COVID-19, he said.

Companies that sent Vietnamese labourers to work abroad were requested to immediately halt sending the labourers to work in epidemic-affected areas. If any company was found to violate this order, it would be strictly dealt with, he said.

For Vietnamese labourers returning to Viet Nam from epidemic-affected areas, they must also comply with the Ministry of Health’s regulations on monitoring and quarantine, he said./.