City Party secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan said that Da Nang should be considered a "dangerous Covid-19 epicentre" and placed under a lockdown similar to Wuhan in China, according to VNExpress.

The city with a population of 1.1 million has recorded 120 infections since the first case was discovered on July 25.

According to the World Health Organisation, one of the criteria for a country to declare a national epidemic is to have 10 cases for every million people.

Nhan said in an online government meeting on Aug. 2: "In Vietnam, the ratio is currently 2.7 infections per million, and so, generally speaking, we are still safe. However, Da Nang is another story as it has gone far beyond that threshold."

Outbreak in Da Nang

His comments come as more cases linked to the outbreak in Da Nang are discovered.

Four of the cases were also found at factories in different industrial parks in the city that collectively employs 77,000 people, reported Reuters.

Vietnam had been one of the countries that was praised widely for how it handled the Covid-19 outbreak since January. Prior to this, it went more than three months without detecting any domestic transmissions.

The country also recorded zero deaths until July 31, when state media reported that a 70-year-old man from Hoi An has passed away. 

Six Covid-19 deaths have been reported since.

Just last week, it was reported that Vietnam was evacuating 80,000 people — majority of whom are domestic tourists — out of the city.

These local tourists are subjected to Covid-19 tests and a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon their return to their home cities.

Need for lockdown

However, there is still fear that the outbreak will worsen if the situation in the city is not managed properly.

Since the Vietnamese Ministry of Health has said that many infected from Da Nang are either asymptomatic or have yet to be diagnosed, Nhan said that "Da Nang should apply the strictest measures to control the outbreak".

The strictest measures internationally have been those applied in Wuhan.

Earlier this year, the Chinese city was placed under a complete lockdown and the citizens were ordered to stay at home.

Some areas continue to allow one or two family members out of the home to buy necessities but other areas barred residents from leaving altogether.

Nhan said: "The biggest challenge now is to make quarantining at home as effective as possible, and each person should have the responsibility to monitor others."

Top image via Getty