Prime Minister agrees to declare Covid-19 epidemic nationwide

Speaking at the Government Standing Committee meeting this afternoon (March 30) on measures to prevent and combat Covid-19, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucagree to declare Covid-19 epidemic nationwide andrequest to continue screening all subjects at risk of infection, especially patients and visitors at Bach Mai Hospital from March 10. In particular, resolutely and without hesitation request people to stay at home. Each province stays in its own province, each family stays in its own home.

Bach Mai Hospital welcomes seriously ill patients back

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the Steering Committee for Epidemic Prevention and Control, ministries, branches and localities for their efforts in epidemic prevention and control, in which the industry and trade sector has successfully produced protective suits and produced enough masks to meet domestic demand.

"Vietnam has been very early, very determined and timely, helping the people and international friends appreciate the work of epidemic prevention and control in Vietnam; the Vietnamese community abroad feels lucky to be citizens of the country that can be most assured during the epidemic. We are determined not to lose this. Our strategy or approach has appropriate steps, in which we have been calm, increasingly suppressed, and decisive. The whole system has worked selflessly to achieve the current situation. We thank all the people; commend the staff of the health sector; thank the doctors of Bach Mai Hospital who volunteered to stay at the hospital with seriously ill patients and other volunteer doctors and nurses," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized.

The Prime Minister agreed to allow Bach Mai Hospital to continue receiving critically ill patients for emergency treatment, and requested the hospital to ensure strict organization and safety for both medical staff and patients.

The Ministry of Health is researching appropriate medical examination and treatment procedures to avoid a situation where an individual with Covid-19 can spread the infection, affecting the entire hospital, especially when people at risk of testing positive are still in society.

"Lightning speed" to suppress the outbreak at Bach Mai Hospital

Requesting ministries, branches and localities to continue to seriously implement Directive 15 of the Prime Minister, the conclusions of the Prime Minister and the Steering Committee for Epidemic Prevention and Control, the Prime Minister stated that they must continue to "speed up" the fight against the epidemic, resolutely focus all resources to suppress the epidemic with all resources.

"This is a decisive moment for the fight against Covid-19. The Prime Minister requested that the political system must focus highly on epidemic prevention and control. First of all, the health sector must closely coordinate with Hanoi city, the police, and other agencies, taking advantage of every minute and every hour to screen and isolate people at risk of infection in the two largest outbreaks, first of all Truong Sinh Company. The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Health, the police and localities must track down more than 2,000 more people, the spirit is to be swift, determined, and focus all resources on suppressing this outbreak. We continue to call on people who have visited Bach Mai Hospital since March 10 to contact us for Covid-19 testing," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested.

Need to arrange staff to work from home

With people still traveling too much, while this is a source of high risk of infection, the Prime Minister recommends that everyone stay at home.

"Some necessary measures are social distancing to effectively prevent the spread of the epidemic to the community in the next 15 days starting today. We must not be subjective or negligent because although we have many strong measures, the streets are still crowded, the beaches are still crowded and some places have not yet implemented well the restriction of large gatherings.

This is a factor with a high risk of infection. Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize and request people, each province to stay in that province, each district to stay in that district, each commune to stay in that commune, each neighborhood to stay in that neighborhood, each house to stay in that house for at least 15 days to avoid infection. Agencies arrange for staff to work from home and handle work via information technology, except in cases where they have to go to the agency on duty to be ready for combat, handle confidential documents, be on duty at the headquarters, and perform production activities to serve essential products for the economy," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized.

At the meeting, the Prime Minister called on each family and each individual to protect themselves. Measures to prevent and control the epidemic, authorities at all levels, and propaganda work must be promoted in this direction. Along with the campaign, the head of the agency must be responsible if the agency has many people infected because they do not fully understand the regulations on disease prevention and control.

The Prime Minister requested to basically stop public transportation and limit personal vehicles as much as possible. The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Justice to study and report to the Prime Minister to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee and the National Assembly to declare a state of emergency when necessary.

Do not let the epidemic spread widely in Hanoi

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the Ministry of National Defense to study the separation of old and new quarantine areas to avoid cross-infection. Agencies and localities should not self-announce positive cases but report to the Ministry of Health for announcement twice a day.

The Prime Minister also requested to promote voluntary health declaration more strongly; to ensure security and order well. The Prime Minister requested that insurance businesses not deploy and introduce insurance packages related to Covid-19.

Emphasizing the need to control the spread of the disease on a large scale in Hanoi, the Prime Minister requested the Steering Committee, the Ministry of Health, and other ministries and branches to support Hanoi.

Regarding ensuring minimum social security for the people, the Prime Minister said that the Government will discuss in the direction of prioritizing those with very low incomes in the spirit of the central and local budgets trying to support. The specific level and subjects of support will be discussed at the Government meeting on April 1.

Regarding the production of ventilators and masks, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Health to be the focal point to make specific proposals on quality in the spirit of urgency of “time, time and time”. It is necessary to promote the contributions of leading professors in the production of ventilators, because this is an important device that contributes to human life./.