Nghe An participates in giving comments on the Draft Directive on Covid-19 prevention and control in the new situation

On the afternoon of April 17, under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, the National Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Acute Respiratory Infections Caused by the New Coronavirus (Covid-19) held an online conference with ministries, branches and localities across the country. The conference listened to and gave opinions on the Draft Directive on implementing measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic in the new situation.

At Nghe An bridge, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Head of the Provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control chaired.

Continue to strictly implement the Central's direction

The draft Directive discussed and debated by ministries, branches and localities this time is a continuation of Directive 15 and Directive 16 of the Prime Minister on measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic.

According to the draft, Party committees, authorities at all levels, ministries and branches continue to unify awareness and action, thoroughly grasp the viewpoint of "fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy". Continue to strictly implement the leadership and direction of the Politburo, the Secretariat, the Government, the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control. Cadres, Party members, civil servants and public employees must be exemplary and take the lead in implementation.

Conference scene at Nghe An bridge. Photo: Dao Tuan

Continue to firmly implement the principles of epidemic prevention: prevention, detection, isolation, containment, containment, and treatment, minimizing deaths.

Timely prevent sources of infection from outside; strictly control entry at all border gates: air, rail, road, sea. Continue to advise Vietnamese citizens abroad not to return home temporarily...

Strictly implement epidemic prevention measures at agencies, offices, units, production, business and service establishments; social protection facilities... according to the instructions of competent authorities.

Testing patient samples in Nghe An. Photo: Thanh Cuong

The draft Directive also directs the strengthening of capacity and focusing on testing at outbreaks, groups of people or high-risk areas; focusing on ensuring medical examination and treatment activities for people; promoting scientific research, applying technology to the production of biological products, equipment, medical supplies, vaccines... in epidemic prevention; not organizing crowded religious and belief ceremonies; temporarily suspending activities and services such as: entertainment areas, tourism, karaoke, massage, bars, dance clubs.

Measures applied to each risk group

For high-risk groups:Require people to stay at home and limit going out as much as possible, except in cases of real necessity such as: buying food, medicine, goods and services; emergencies such as emergency, medical examination and treatment; natural disasters, fires; working at state agencies, units, armed forces, diplomatic agencies. Do not gather more than 2 people in public places, outside of offices, schools, hospitals; keep a minimum distance of 2 meters when in contact.

Basically stop public passenger transport, limit inter-provincial traffic, arrange intra-provincial traffic accordingly.

Close establishments that provide non-essential goods and services.

For at-risk groups:Limit people from going out, do not gather in groups of more than 10 people, when going out, wear masks, wash hands regularly with soap or disinfectant solution, keep a minimum distance of 1 meter when in contact. Limit public passenger transport activities; inter-provincial transport. It is recommended to limit intra-provincial passenger transport.

During the days of social distancing, the number of people participating in traffic in Vinh City has decreased. Illustration photo: Duc Anh

Restrict the opening of stores serving non-essential goods; restrict certain types of street businesses and freelance labor on the street; People's Committees of provinces and cities decide, within their authority, on the opening of non-essential stores and street businesses, but must ensure epidemic prevention measures.

For low-risk groups:Encourage people not to leave their homes when not necessary, not to gather in groups of 20 or more in public places, keep a minimum distance of 1 meter when in contact; encourage limiting public passenger transport and inter-provincial passenger transport.

It is recommended that stores serving non-essential goods not open; businesses and freelance workers are allowed to work but must ensure infection prevention measures.

Increase local authority over street labor group activities

Contributing comments to the draft Directive, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province Nguyen Duc Trung suggested that the agency drafting the Directive consider adding more content: allowing accommodation establishments to operate on the basis of ensuring safety in epidemic prevention work. Because according to the analysis of the head of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, recently it has been shown that accommodation establishments still have guests, although very few.

Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung attended and spoke at the conference. Photo: Dao Tuan

Regarding the measures for each risk group, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province suggested that it is necessary to clarify and provide more details about the nature of each group. For example, it is necessary to clarify the content of "street business type" so that local authorities have a basis to decide according to their authority.

Further analyzing the measures for local groups at risk, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung said that during the period of social distancing, low-income workers making a living on the streets faced many difficulties. Therefore, he proposed that the authority to decide on the activities of these workers be assigned to the authorities of provinces and cities. In addition, he agreed with the Government's viewpoint on classifying risk groups in each locality, district, and commune, but the Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province requested the Steering Committee to provide specific guidance on criteria for classifying each group of subjects for implementation.

Actively adjust to perform dual tasks

Concluding the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam emphasized that with the current epidemic situation, the policy is to classify risk groups at the district, commune and even village levels.

The Deputy Prime Minister affirmed that the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to last even though there are times and places where it subsides. The pandemic can only be limited and prevented when the world has a vaccine, said Mr. Vu Duc Dam. Meanwhile, Vietnam must now carry out a dual task: fighting the pandemic and developing the socio-economy. The dual goal must be given priority to the task of preventing the pandemic. The three goals at this time, as proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, are: controlling the pandemic, living safely with the pandemic, and making positive adjustments in society.

For disease control, it is necessary to focus on preventing possible sources of infection; there must be more specific and detailed solutions for each locality and area in detecting and handling infected and suspected cases.

After controlling the epidemic, we will have to live safely with it. To live safely, we must understand the epidemic and the virus's transmission mechanism to prevent it effectively. Therefore, we must promote communication and propaganda work. We must carry out epidemic prevention and safety work in all areas of social life, living safely in every corner and at every level.

Regarding the positive adjustment, the reality of the Covid-19 epidemic prevention work in the past time, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, has brought about the noble values ​​of the Vietnamese people. That is the spirit of dedication, sacrifice, mutual love and mutual assistance of all classes of people. Positive adjustment is also the adjustment of work processes and methods. This is also an opportunity to promote the 4.0 revolution; strengthen digital transformation and public services; and will be the conditions for organizing online activities such as: medical examination and treatment, cashless payment.

In life, there are social manifestations and habits that have also changed through this pandemic to adapt to the trend. For example, there is chaos in traffic activities, participation in festivals, large-scale funerals, and waste by a group of officials and people. This is the time to pause and look back. "While eating and drinking, people like to shake hands or share chopsticks, which is very unhygienic. We need to make positive adjustments" - Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam gave an example and believed that if the above limitations are overcome, Vietnam will definitely successfully fight the pandemic and will develop better in the economy and society.