Nghe An strengthens the role of the community Covid-19 surveillance team as many workers return home

From the subjectivity and dishonesty of the people

After a period of controlCovid-19 epidemicRecently, the number of infections in Nghe An has tended to increase, especially since citizens working and living in the southern provinces returned home. Since the beginning of the epidemic season until now (August 13), the whole province has recorded 184 infections, all of whom are people returning from the South, most of them from Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City.

Leaders of Hong Son Ward (Vinh City) and the Covid-19 Community Monitoring Team of Block 23 inspected the business situation of essential goods in the area. Photo: Cong Kien

The risk of infection and outbreak will be limited if all people stay vigilant and comply well.“5K” recommendation, especially those returning from epidemic areas must be proactive and honest in their medical declarations. But in reality, there are times and places where people still avoid declaring or declare dishonestly to avoid medical quarantine.

For example, recently in Hoang Mai town, 6 citizens from Quynh Vinh commune returned from Hanoi but declared that they were from Ha Nam to avoid quarantine. More seriously, patient VLQ in Quynh Thien ward drove to Dong Nai province to pick up 3 people to Nghe An for 17 million VND. Upon returning, this patient did not go to the medical station to declare immediately but went home to meet his wife and children, then went to have breakfast, wash the car, get a haircut, take passengers to Vinh city and contact many more people.

The Covid-19 community monitoring team of Hong Son block, Hong Son ward (Vinh city) implements the motto "go to every alley, knock on every door". Photo: Cong Kien

When hearing that 1 of 3 passengers returned from Dong NaipositiveWith Covid-19, VLQ just went to declare health and take samples for testing. This lack of awareness and deception has caused consequences for the community and society, affecting the lives of many people. If from the beginning, VLQ patients had been aware of declaring honestly or had been closely monitored by organizations, unions and local people, this unfortunate incident would certainly not have happened.

Previously, a family in Lang Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) with 7 members traveled by private car from Binh Duong province to their locality a day later and went to the medical station to declare. Here, medical staff determined that the area where these people came from was implementing Directive 16, forcing them to be quarantined to prevent and control the epidemic.

The Covid-19 prevention and control propaganda team of Ngoc Lam commune (Thanh Chuong) disseminates measures to prevent and control the risk of disease spread. Photo: Cong Kien

However, these 7 people did not comply and drove away on their own, so the local authorities had to mobilize police, militia and other forces.Supervisory teamCovid-19 community tracing, forced isolation according to regulations.

Through the above cases, we once again see the important role of the Community Covid-19 Monitoring Team in investigating and verifying factors related to the epidemic as well as the situation of citizens in the area. Especially in capturing information about people who have been in contact with suspected infected people and cases returning from epidemic areas to promptly have solutions.

Go to every alley, knock on every door

The community Covid-19 monitoring teams are established by the People's Committees of communes/wards. The teams operate on a voluntary basis with the core being socio-political organizations, community-based unions, and volunteers in residential areas under the organization and management of local authorities and the technical guidance of the health sector. Depending on actual conditions, each team is in charge of 40-50 households and a specific list of households is assigned to each team.

The team's mission is to go to every alley and knock on every door every day to: Communicate, mobilize, and remind people about disease prevention and control measures; request and guide people to self-monitor their health, proactively make medical declarations when they or their family members show signs of suspected illness.

The team is also responsible for asking, monitoring, detecting and immediately reporting by phone to local authorities and commune/ward health stations suspected cases of Covid-19 detected in households; detecting and reporting to competent authorities cases of non-voluntary medical declaration, non-compliance with epidemic prevention and control measures as prescribed and performing other tasks appropriate to the capacity assigned by the Commune/Ward Epidemic Prevention and Control Steering Committee.

In fact, it has been proven that during many outbreaks, the community Covid-19 surveillance team has operated extremely effectively, making an especially important contribution to controlling and repelling the epidemic.

Typically, in Hung Tan commune (Hung Nguyen), the monitoring team was established on the basis of self-managed inter-family groups, or more precisely, the content of Covid-19 prevention and control was integrated into the activities of the self-managed groups. Accordingly, the whole commune has 41 Covid-19 monitoring teams.community, each group has 18-15 households residing in the same area.

Thanks to the mobilization and close supervision of the Community Covid-19 Monitoring Team, people related to epidemiological factors in Hung Tan commune (Hung Nguyen) voluntarily declared their health status and had their samples taken for testing. Photo: Cong Kien

The team leader is the general manager, who is in charge of the daily situation and the connection of information with the Steering Committee. The members are responsible for monitoring the households in the team, and the households monitor each other. When they discover someone who has been in contact with a sick person or someone returning from an epidemic area, they must promptly notify the team leader.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong - Head of Group 8 in Lang Phan hamlet (Hung Tan), the group has 28 households living close together, every day the members remind each other to keep clean, practice "5K" well. Especially, when someone from far away comes back or guests from far away come to visit the house, it is necessary tohealth declarationAny family with a member in an epidemic area is advised to "stay put" and if they return, they need to declare and quarantine.

“Hung Tan Commune has 4 hamlets, if we establish a community Covid-19 monitoring team based on hamlets, it may be difficult to cover the whole area. Establishing a self-management team for each household will be highly effective, because households living in each residential cluster will closely monitor each other, and the awareness and responsibility of households will also be enhanced. Thanks to that, up to now, Hung Tan has not had any violations of regulations on epidemic prevention and control.”

Ms. Phan Thi Thuan - Chairwoman of the Fatherland Front Committee of Hung Tan commune (Hung Nguyen)

In Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky), along with 7 community Covid-19 monitoring teams of 7 hamlets, the commune also established 63 teams based on 63 inter-family teams, bringing the total number of the whole commune to 70, not including the commune's propaganda team. "With more than 70 community Covid-19 monitoring teams operating regularly, all important information is reported to the commune-level Steering Committee. The teams are all actively operating, closely following the area, so up to now, the epidemic prevention and control work is being carried out well" - Mr. Trinh Huy Toan, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said.

The community Covid-19 monitoring team in Ky Tan commune (Tan Ky) mobilized people to sign a commitment to strictly implement regulations on disease prevention and control. Photo: Cong Kien

Returning to Lang Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), according to Mr. Dau Xuan Tu - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, the commune has deployed 7 community Covid-19 monitoring teams, each team has 8 members, including the Party cell secretary, hamlet chief and members of the committee.Front workwith 3 prestigious citizens in the community.

Each member is in charge of 1 to 2 inter-family groups to grasp changes in population as well as cases of travel to and from the locality, promptly reporting to the Commune Steering Committee for timely handling. Members of the Community Covid-19 Monitoring Groups are responsible for monitoring cases of home quarantine; propagating epidemic prevention and control work. Thanks to that, a number of violations of regulations have recently been discovered, helpingSteering committeeThe commune has timely treatment plan.

The community Covid-19 monitoring team in Lang Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) posts notices of disease prevention and control at families with people in quarantine. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Thus, at present, depending on the actual situation, localities need to encourage creativity in organizing the activities of community Covid-19 monitoring teams, aiming to promote high efficiency in epidemic prevention and control work.