HÀ NỘI — More than 2.1 million text messages had been sent to raise funds for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control as of 11am on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC).

The messages pledged more than VNĐ126 billion (US$5.4 million) to the effort.

The national steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control said the money would be used to buy medical equipment and protective tools for doctors, police and soldiers in close contact with patients. The fund will also be used for people in quarantine centres.

The fundraising campaign was launched on March 19 by the MoIC, the Ministry of Health, the Central Committee of the Fatherland Front and the Vietnam Red Cross Society. It will run until June 18. Each text message sent to 1407 will contribute at least VNĐ20,000 ($0.86) to the fund.

In another development, the Authority of Information Technology Application under the MoIC said that by 11.30am on Sunday, it had received more than 446,700 medical declarations from people entering the country via tokhaiyte.vn. As many as 4.9 million people have downloaded the NCOVI app – the app for voluntary health declarations. — VNS