The Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control

Attending the meeting at the Government headquarters were: General To Lam - Politburo member, Minister of Public Security; General Phan Van Giang - Politburo member, Minister of National Defense; Party Central Committee Secretary, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai; Party Central Committee Secretary, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Do Van Chien; Party Central Committee Secretary, Head of the Central Propaganda Department Nguyen Trong Nghia; Party Central Committee Secretary, Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Department Bui Thi Minh Hoai; Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam; Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh; Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh; leaders of a number of relevant ministries and branches.

Politburo member, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung; Politburo member, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen and comrades Secretaries of Provincial and Municipal Party Committees, Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and cities attended the meeting at local bridges.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that the meeting aimed to assess the situation and developments of the epidemic in the past two weeks, especially the past week, the results of implementing tasks and solutions, what has been achieved and what has not been achieved, clearly identify the causes, especially subjective causes, lessons learned in leadership, direction, implementation organization, inspection and supervision, thereby determining appropriate goals, tasks and solutions for the coming time, especially for next week.

Another very important content of the meeting is to continue giving opinions on the draft plan for safe, flexible adaptation and effective control of Covid-19 for socio-economic development. Recently, the Steering Committee has directed the Ministry of Health and the Health Subcommittee to draft this plan with indicators, regulations, and procedures for assessment and implementation. "From now until September 30, we will try to gradually relax social distancing in a controlled manner to restore socio-economic development," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also said that on September 24, the National Assembly Standing Committee held a very important meeting, agreeing with the Government's proposal to issue a policy to support workers and employers affected by the Covid-19 epidemic from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The Prime Minister requested that this policy be implemented well to promptly support workers and employers in the spirit of "a piece of food when hungry is worth a package when full".

The Prime Minister asked delegates to focus their time, intelligence, and experience on giving opinions, especially on plans for safe and flexible adaptation, effective disease control, timely promulgation, and good implementation.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Information and Communications to report at the meeting on continuing to complete a number of technical and technological solutions to serve epidemic prevention.

According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, in the past 14 days, 152,215 new cases were recorded in our country (87,214 community cases); last week, 72,236 cases were recorded, down 9.7% compared to the previous week.

In the 4th outbreak, as of September 24, 2021, the whole country recorded about 734,000 cases, 503,000 people recovered (accounting for 69%); 16/62 provinces have gone 14 days without recording new cases, 5 provinces have no secondary infections, 1 province has not recorded any cases (Cao Bang).

The number of deaths in the week decreased by 12.1% compared to the previous week; in Ho Chi Minh City alone, it decreased by 10.5%, in Binh Duong by 12.6%, in Dong Nai by 15.4%, and in Long An by 15.8%.

In 23 localities implementing social distancing, the epidemic situation is gradually being controlled; the number of cases in the past 7 days decreased by 9.8% compared to the previous 7 days (including Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, Long An). During the week, 40,577 cases were recorded in the community (accounting for 56.2% of the total number of cases), down 11.7% compared to the previous week.

In other localities, the epidemic situation is still basically under control./.