Prime Minister: Need to 'determine new normal state' in Covid-19 prevention

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks. Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA.

On the afternoon of April 22, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired a meeting of the Government Standing Committee to review the results of the implementation of the Prime Minister's Conclusion on applying epidemic prevention and control measures in localities according to 3 risk groups since April 15.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, which received special attention from the people of the whole country, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked leaders of ministries, branches, and members of the Steering Committee to actively discuss. He stated that the people of the whole country are waiting for the final decision of today's meeting to resolve issues of employment, production and business, growth, and prevention of the return of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Prime Minister also directed to discuss measures in the coming time in the direction of "opening up" but coupled with strict control to prevent the epidemic, basically bringing people's lives back to normal. The meeting also discussed content related to the form of organizing teaching and learning, graduation exams, and entrance exams nationwide in the coming time.

The updated report of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control at the meeting recorded 268 cases of Covid-19 in Vietnam as of 12:00 on April 22. No new cases have been recorded since April 17, 2020. Of these, 222 cases have recovered, accounting for 83% of the total number of patients; 52 patients are being treated at 9 medical facilities. 3 patients with severe progression (numbers 20, 91, 161) are being actively treated and have shown progress in recent days, 21 cases have tested negative once or more (of which 9 cases have tested negative twice or more).

Regarding the outbreak in Ha Loi village, Me Linh, Hanoi: 13 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded, no new cases have been reported since patient number 267 was announced on April 15; 12 checkpoints have been set up, the entire village has been isolated, and 74 teams have been established to monitor the health of the entire village twice a day.

For patient number 268 recorded in Dong Van, Ha Giang province, 358 test samples were taken, of which 302 samples had negative results, the rest are awaiting results.

According to the latest proposal of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control at the meeting, based on closely monitoring the epidemic developments in recent times, the Steering Committee proposed to change the risk grouping of localities nationwide compared to April 15. Accordingly, Hanoi is the only locality in the high-risk group, 3 localities are at risk (Ho Chi Minh City, Bac Ninh, Ha Giang) and the remaining 59 localities are in the low-risk group.

However, at the meeting, on behalf of the city's leaders, based on the results of the report on the epidemic control situation and forecasting risks in the coming time, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung proposed that the Prime Minister, the Government, and the Steering Committee study, evaluate, and classify Hanoi as a locality in the risk group. The Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee also pledged to continue to maintain measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic to prevent the risk of infection. This proposed viewpoint also received consensus from leaders of many central ministries and branches at the meeting.

After listening to the opinions and discussions from ministries, branches, localities and the Steering Committee, concluding this important meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the Steering Committee, localities, especially Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the Ministry of Health, ministries, branches and all people for implementing drastic epidemic prevention and control measures and achieving encouraging results.

However, the Prime Minister also noted the need to heighten vigilance, accept the situation of "living in a state of epidemic", need to "have clear awareness, not ambiguity" and have handling measures based on the medical capacity of the country and localities. The Prime Minister commented that in the past 3 months, the whole country has persistently applied strong measures, the results up to this point are encouraging. Especially the application of the correct social isolation policy, thanks to which no new Covid-19 infections have been detected in the past 6 days. This is a victory to move to a longer, more fundamental phase of fighting the epidemic along with achieving the goal of socio-economic development.

Therefore, the Prime Minister requested all levels and sectors to continue to resolutely prevent the epidemic from entering Vietnam again.

“Vietnam has done well in preventing and controlling the epidemic, strictly implementing social distancing but must ensure the circulation of goods, create jobs and develop the socio-economy,” said the Prime Minister.

Therefore, the Prime Minister reiterated the policy of preventing the epidemic from outside, suppressing the epidemic from within, and actively treating infected cases. Strictly implementing quarantine for foreigners entering Vietnam who are infected or at high risk; quarantine measures can be flexible, depending on the subject but must be ensured to be serious and strict. Quickly detect cases, isolate and suppress the epidemic early.

The Prime Minister emphasized the need to "determine the new normal" such as mandatory mask wearing in community activities, going to school, going to the market, participating in traffic...; regularly washing hands with sanitizer; mobilizing the minimum distance between people in regular activities; continuing to advise people to limit going out and limiting large gatherings.

New lifestyle, civilization, new working style, a new era with applications of science and technology, information technology widely applied in all aspects of social life; affirming the country's self-reliance.

People showing signs of illness or fever should stay at home, not go to work, school, or follow doctor's instructions to prevent the spread of the disease in the community.

The Prime Minister basically agreed with the cautious easing measures proposed by the Steering Committee.

Accordingly, divided into 3 groups: high risk, risk and low risk.

Hanoi is a risky locality, but some localities in Hanoi are at high risk such as Thuong Tin, Me Linh and some places with many infections, strictly applying Directive 16.

For low-risk groups, stores selling non-essential goods and services are allowed to operate and must fully implement disease prevention measures for shoppers.

In addition, localities with border gates, large industrial zones, and many freelance workers in big cities... need to pay special attention to epidemic prevention work for these areas.

The People's Committees of provinces and cities have strengthened their direction on infection prevention at medical facilities; increased sampling of patients with flu symptoms; freelance workers; vulnerable people; and workers in boarding houses for testing to detect early, isolate, and contain the outbreak.