Obey the Covid rules even though cases are falling, taskforce warns

The National Taskforce for Covid-19 Prevention and Control has warned everyone to continue to strictly comply with virus prevention and control measures even though daily case rates have declined over the past two weeks.
Five more cases were announced on Monday, bringing the total to 1,968. Some 1,720 people have been discharged from hospitals and three people have died from the virus.
Although the number of cases reported each day is falling, new cases continue to be confirmed every day and Vientiane is still experiencing community outbreaks of the virus, the taskforce said in its daily press statement.

“There are cluster outbreaks within families and people in close contact because people who are infected but have no symptoms continue to live and move around as normal,” the taskforce said.
“This is generating new infection zones (red zones) every day.”
So far, 25 villages in seven districts of Vientiane have been declared as red zones where strict lockdown measures are enforced.
The taskforce called on the public to strictly observe the Covid-19 prevention and control measures so that restrictions can be lifted after June 19 the date currently set for the end of the lockdown, which began in mid-April.
The warning comes as the taskforce is working to bring the lockdown to an end so as to mitigate the economic and social impacts of the pandemic.
The taskforce called for people who had come into close contact with Covid-19 patients to get tested for the virus and self-isolate for 14 days.
The five cases reported on Monday were among 1,873 people tested for the virus the previous day. One of the new cases occurred in Vientiane, one in Champassak, and three in Savannakhet province.
The case in Vientiane was a person who had come into contact with an infected individual, while those in Savannakhet and Champassak provinces were Lao workers who had returned from Thailand.
Imported cases have been reported regularly as people, mostly Lao workers, continue to cross borders to return home. However, officials say it is much easier to deal with imported cases than outbreaks in local communities.
On June 6, Covid-19 taskforces gave permission to 914 people to enter Laos, including 706 crossing the Laos-Thailand border.
Incoming migrants must be tested for the virus and spend 14 days in quarantine.
Currently, 56 quarantine centres are operating and house 3,764 people.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update June 9, 2021)