Health workers conduct rapid COVID-19 testing before administering vaccines to residents in a blockaded area in HCM CIty. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI —  The Government has set a target for HCM City, the epicentre of the current wave of infections, to contain its COVID-19 outbreak by September 15.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has just signed Resolution 86 of the Government on the implementation of urgent measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic to implement Resolution 30 of the National Assembly.

According to the resolution , the Government aims for HCM City to control its outbreak before September 15; Bình Dương, Long An, Đồng Nai provinces before September 1; and other localities before August 25.

The resolution said that many agencies, units and localities have not taken serious, decisive or substantive measures in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, while inspection and supervision is still lax in many places.

These include slow responses to the changing situation, slow vaccination rates, lax management of social distancing, as well as congestion in the transport of goods. 

The pandemic is still unpredictable, while the supply of vaccines is limited and there is not yet any specific treatment for the virus, so the Government emphasised that pandemic prevention is an urgent task.

The Resolution stipulates urgent and specific solutions to prevent, repel and move towards good control of the pandemic in order to prevent a crisis both in public health and the socio-economic sector.

Regarding the application of urgent measures, the Government assigned local leaders to proactively decide and direct their subordinates to strictly apply solutions corresponding to the level of risk in the spirit of Directive 15, Directive 16 and Directive 19 of the Prime Minister. Based on the actual situation, they may apply these solutions earlier and at higher levels but not later and lower than the provisions in the above documents.

The Government pays special attention to social distancing and other measures in anti-pandemic work that must be strictly implemented from the very beginning, at all levels. Leaders of localities are asked not to procrastinate, hesitate, lack determination or lack responsibility. Instead, they should take the lead, be creative when implementing the task, draw lessons from the work and made quick adjustments when the situation changes.

All localities must strictly implement the motto "go to every alley, knock from door to door, check every person", detect and handle people who come from pandemic-affected areas without declaring and people leaving localities which are applying social distancing without permission.

One of the other urgent solutions proposed by the Government is to allow localities to proactively and flexibly apply necessary measures such as restricting some vehicles or asking people not to leave their homes for a certain period of time.

Speed up testing

Localities need to speed up testing among high-risk groups of people in order to detect new cases as soon as possible, the resolution said. Localities must not miss new F0s and not let them continue to travel and spread the virus further.

For areas with widespread infections such as HCM City and neighbouring provinces, it is necessary to enhance testing, care and treatment, ensuring the maximum reduction in the rate of severe cases, mortality and spread to other areas.

The Ministry of Health is tasked with promptly distributing vaccines to provinces and cities, in which priority is given to densely populated localities, those with many infections and fatalities, as well as any large and crowded urban areas.

The resolution also asked the Ministry of Health to build pandemic response scenarios for all levels, based on which the procurement of equipment and materials can be calculated. 

The Ministry of Health, ministries, branches and localities can mobilise public and private health systems and social resources to promptly coordinate in the implementation of COVID-19 prevention, treatment and vaccination.

The Government also requested the Ministry of Finance, ministries, branches and localities to prioritise the arrangement and allocation of the state budget and other lawful resources to ensure funding for the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control work.

The Government requested the cutting of at least 50 per cent of spending on conferences, travelling expenses of ministries, central agencies and localities (except for the expenses of important and urgent activities and to serve the pandemic prevention and control work). — VNS