Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam: We cannot let another outbreak cause great losses.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc DamHe said that when it comes to fighting the epidemic, not only he, Ho Chi Minh City, the health sector, but also many localities have a lot to say.

According to him, we consider this a war. Today, the situation is under control according to Resolution 128. Everything seems to be improving. According to Nikkei, Vietnam's Covid-19 recovery index was at the bottom of the table a month ago, but now it is in the middle of the table, but this war is still going on.

He said that the number of infections has been increasing for the past few days, and even the National Assembly deputies here have many provincial leaders sitting in meetings and still have to give regular instructions.

The Deputy Prime Minister shared that as someone who has been following from the beginning and living in the epidemic area, he found all the comments of the National Assembly deputies about the shortcomings and limitations to be very correct.

There are new things that appear while we are fighting the epidemic, when the health system is overloaded, there are times when existing problems, not only in the health sector, but also in social management in general, are exposed. All those opinions must be seriously accepted, so that we can take very certain but urgent steps to overcome them, because we cannot let another epidemic that causes great pain and loss like the one just happened happen again.

“Not only the medical, police, and military forces, but also the entire force of grassroots government officials in Ho Chi Minh City and heavily infected provinces are extremely exhausted and overloaded.

There are wards like in Binh Duong, where I went, there were 18,500 infected people," the Deputy Prime Minister said sadly.

He said that the whole Mekong Delta has less infections than that, but the tension is higher because there is no vaccine, the health system is very weak, and people are coming back from Ho Chi Minh City.

“We are not an ideal society managed like a computer. Every night there we have to deal with hundreds of people from Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong returning to the provinces. We cannot let them go to clear the air, because the next day more people will return, and if we keep them, the elderly, children, and sometimes the rain will be very painful.

The provincial leaders are all extremely troubled, no one can rest assured," the Deputy Prime Minister expressed.

How to maintain this achievement? According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Government has issued Resolution 128 and is currently drafting a strategy, but only has a 2-year period to recover during and after Covid-19.

The Deputy Prime Minister raised a number of points that need to be done.

Firstly, the vaccine has arrived, the vaccine has been injected but it is still contagious, but the transmission is slower, with one injection the rate of severe infection will be very low. From practice, it shows that even with only one dose of vaccine, the rate of infection becoming severe is low, allowing us to be calmer if the vaccine is finished.

“We have enough vaccines now, we have asked the Ministry of Health to report specifically. Currently, to vaccinate enough adults with 2 doses, the North is still short of 23 million doses, and will have enough by the 4th week of November; the Central provinces are short of 5 million doses, and will have enough by the 3rd week of November; the Central Highlands provinces still need 2.5 million doses, and will have enough by the 2nd week of November; the Mekong Delta provinces and the South in general are still short of 4 million doses, and will have enough this week.

So now we inject and inject, inject safely," the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the "new normal" is not normal, masks must still be worn, and the whole population must still remember the 5K, because if we don't do it, many people will be infected and the health system will be overloaded.

The Deputy Prime Minister analyzed that even if we vaccinate 100% of people aged 18 and over by the end of the year, we will only reach 80% of the population. The vaccine will only protect about 80%, meaning that only 64% will be protected. If we do not do a good job of Covid-19 safety in daily life and production, it will lead to overload. In all, nearly 1 million people were infected in the last outbreak, but tens of millions of people are still at risk of infection.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested strict medical supervision and proactively control all supplies and testing reagents. The Government has requested the Ministry of Health to submit a report and the Government will centrally purchase testing kits at a cheaper price and, importantly, proactively provide them to localities. Once the tests are done, quarantine will be implemented in a new way, so that the new normal can truly be achieved.

Next is to prepare the medicine. We have planned for the treatment of the virus early, it is important to give early treatment, gradually practice treatment at home. In particular, continue to monitor people with underlying diseases, the elderly, especially students and children because they have not been vaccinated, we only vaccinate when the World Health Organization recommends, currently from 12 years old and up. For those under 12 years old who have not been vaccinated, we focus on closely monitoring these subjects, when symptoms appear, treat them immediately.

In addition, it is necessary to thoroughly grasp, train, and practice the command and coordination capacity between forces. If done well, losses will be avoided and the economy will recover...