Residents at a vaccination site in HCM City. (Source: VNA) Speakingat a meeting with economic and medical experts last earlier this week, Secretaryof the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen said: “The city is under hugepressure to reopen the economy or it will be too late.”
Thelevel of suffering of the economy and people has reached its limit dueto prolonged lockdown measures. As such, the city will develop aroadmap for reopening so that it can adapt to and live safety with the virus,he said.
Thecity will gradually narrow down areas with very high risks and try toexpand the number of low-risk areas, according to Nen.
VuThanh Tu Anh, Director of the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management,said that reopening for economic development and social security hasbecome more urgent than ever as both businesses and people, especially thepoor, are struggling due to the lockdowns.
“Theeconomic cost is huge if we delay the reopening further,” he noted.
Hesaid it was too expensive to conduct large-scale testing for the city’s entirepopulation. In addition, the city’s revenue and centralgovernment revenue are facing challenges as the cost of pandemicprevention has been extremely high.
Anh calledfor the Ministry of Health to adjust regulations and safety criteriafor the city’s reopening.
Prof.Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan, Director of the HCM City Institute for Research andDevelopment, pointed out that “when the city’s revenue is in trouble, itwill also affect national financial resources.”
Economicsexpert Tran Du Lich has called on the city to change its pandemic fightingstrategy and not focus on tracing all close contacts ofpositive cases.
LeTruong Giang, Chairman of the HCM City Public Health Association, said althoughthe city has applied strict measures for months, the number of cases has notfallen as planned.
Vaccinesand medicines are the “two weapons to fight the pandemic,” hesaid.
“Testingwill help to detect cases early so as to avoid the risk of becomingmore seriously ill. It will also help bring the tested people back to normallife and restore social activities.”
“Thoughthe city has not been able to contain the outbreak according to the Ministry ofHealth criteria, it must consider gradually opening up,” he said.
ProfTran Diep Tuan, Rector of the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy,said the number of new cases had not reached a “safe level” under theministry’s criteria and the city must discuss the set of criteriaand take adaptive measures.
LeHoang Ninh, former Director of the HCM City Institute of Public Health, saidthe city’s strategy is to vaccinate everyone because the city cannotremain in lockdown forever.
Ninhsaid it was important to focus on testing high-risk groups, insteadof mass testing, which he said was a waste of resources. “The city must findways to live with the virus because it is not going to be eradicated.”
DrNguyen The Dung, former Director of the city’s Department of Health, said thecity needs to focus on setting basic goals such as reducing thenumber of deaths and seriously ill cases.
Thecity initially planned to ease lockdown measures after September 15 butthe deadline was extended until the end of the month.
Itis speeding up vaccinations for its adult population aged 18 andover and consulting with medical and economic experts about avaccine green card system that would allow people to travel andwork with fewer restrictions.
Accordingto the HCM City Centre for Disease Control, as of September 15, thecity had administered 8,452,609 vaccine shots, including 6.6 million firstshots and 1.7 million second shots. Nearly 1 million people aged 65 andover and people with underlying conditions have been vaccinated.
Therate of first-shot coverage in the city has reached 92.5 percent. Thecity has set a target to vaccinate all adults aged 18 and above by the endof the year./.
VNA
