A health worker takes COVID-19 testing samples for people living in Hà Nội's Thanh Xuân District. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuấn Anh

HÀ NỘI — People who are pregnant, have children under-12-months-old, have underlying health conditions, or are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be assigned jobs that relate to coronavirus, according to a guideline the Ministry of Health announced on Monday.

Accordingly, the ministry has asked medical facilities to develop and implement preventive measures tailored for specific areas and groups of medical workers.

The facilities must actively assess infection risks to early detect and manage SARS-CoV-2 positive health-workers.

The risk assessment for medical workers must be conducted daily after their shift, especially for those working in quarantine areas, examination and treatment areas and SARS-Cov-2 screening areas.

Those assessed as in a high-risk group must stop working, and stop contact with patients and other health workers immediately. They will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 and take health quarantine under current regulations.

Health workers are required to strictly follow the 5K rules: Khẩu trang (facemask) – Khử khuẩn (disinfection) – Khoảng cách (distancing) – Không tụ tập (no gathering) – Khai báo y tế (health declaration), and other disease and control measures.

Health workers who directly treat or take care of COVID-19 patients or those suspected of having SARs-CoV-2 must be trained and master anti-infection skills.

Medical facilities have been asked to maintain suitable working schedules based on health workers’ health conditions.

According to the Ministry of Health, preliminary reports in many countries show that health worker infections account for about 10 per cent of total COVID-19 infections.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is developing with highly infectious variants, the number of people hospitalised for COVID-19 infections continues to increase, causing overload in health facilities and posing a higher risk of health workers being exposed to the virus.

Phạm Thanh Bình, chairwoman of the National Union of Health Workers, said that until the middle of August 2021, nearly 2,400 medical workers in Việt Nam had been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic hit the country, and three had died.

Besides the risk of COVID exposure, medical workers suffer high mental pressure when seeing the increased number of patients whose health conditions tend to worsen quickly and the increased number of fatalities, Bình said.

“Many of them can’t help crying and being stressed when they feel they have failed to save patients,” she said. —VNS