Fight against COVID-19 under review
Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also head of the
National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control, chaired a
meeting in Hanoi on September 24 to review the fight against the pandemic.
As of the same day, Vietnam went through 22 consecutive days without any
COVID-19 case in the community. Among 1,069 infections, 412 are imported and
the remaining are locally transmitted. There were 35 deaths from the virus,
mostly of them suffered serious underlying diseases. As many as 989 patients
have been discharged from hospitals while 41 others are under treatment at
medical establishments.
Pandemic hotbeds have been
basically controlled but the risk remains, especially in major urban areas and
those with dense populations.
Head of the Health Ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine Dang Quang Tan
warned that in the near future, new infections from previous hotbeds or more
imported cases could be discovered as several international flights will be
resumed.
The ministry proposed
stepping up research, production and supply of COVID-19 vaccine as well as
access vaccine supply in the world, he said.
Members of the committee said illegal or legal immigrants failing to follow
prevention and control measures are at high risk of spreading virus in the
community. They cited international experts' comments that alert should be
given to community hotbeds and imported goods.
According to experts, the fight against the pandemic will become harder as the winter
is coming near. Moreover, residents have failed to keep vigilant as not any
local infection has been found for more than three weeks.
At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Son requested
clarifying responsibility of local authorities for quarantine, which he said,
remains loose in hotels and lack of supervision.
The committee assigned the Health Ministry to issue a check list of must-do
actions to grassroots-level units while the Ministry of Education and Training
must require schools to follow the check-list to ensure safety, thus raising
public awareness of the effort.
Hospitals were also asked to step up health-check registration online./.