Preventing pandemic in border area (Photo: VNA)
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./.
