Health workers at infectious disease department of a hospital in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health has submitted to the Government a proposal to declare the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a group A disease and abolish a number of pandemic prevention measures.

According to the ministry, for more than three years of COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health and other ministries, branches and localities have issued several regulations guiding pandemic prevention and control activities.

Many specific and unprecedented measures were promulgated, so changing the disease group will require synchronous adjustments to currently applied epidemic prevention and control measures.

The ministry said that it has carried out procedures to adjust acute respiratory infections caused by a new strain of coronavirus from a Group A infectious disease to a Group B infectious disease.

Group A, the highest level, comprises infectious diseases are particularly dangerous diseases, capable of spreading very quickly and widely, and having a high mortality rate or of unknown causative agent. It includes the likes of influenza A-H5N1, plague, smallpox, cholera, SARS, etc.

Group B, meanwhile, comprises infectious diseases are dangerous and may spread fast and cause a risk of fatality. The list includes diseases like adenovirus, influenza, HIV/AIDS, mumps, malaria, chickenpox, herpes, leprosy, etc.

Accordingly, the ministry proposed abolishing Decision 447/QĐ-TTg by the Prime Minister so that COVID-19 is no longer in Group A.

The ministry has also developed a plan for control, supervision and treatment instructions related to the COVID-19 pandemic for localities to implement when declaring the end of the COVID-19 group A pandemic.

The ministry also proposed abolishing a number of measures on COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control issued by the National Steering Committee for Pandemic Prevention and Control and the Prime Minister.

COVID-19 patients who are being treated before the effective date of this decision will be paid treatment costs as per previous regulations.

To ensure uniformity in the implementation of policies and measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic as it moves from group A to group B, documents issued by the Government and the Ministry of Health on the disease group transfer and the announcement of the end of COVID-19 will take effect at the same time.

By the end of August this year, the country recorded 97,628 cases of COVID-19 and the average monthly number of cases was 1.5 times lower compared to 2021 (about 144,000 cases per month) and eight times lower compared to 2022 (about 816,000 cases per month).

The death rate due to COVID-19 was 0.02 per cent, 0.1 per cent and 1.86 per cent so far in 2023, in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Death rates from a number of common group B infectious diseases recorded in Việt Nam in the last five years include dengue fever at 0.022 per cent, malaria at 0.017 per cent, diphtheria at 0.102 per cent, and whooping cough at 0.417 per cent. — VNS