Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Vaccines for people are urgent, no hesitation

This afternoon (February 15, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year), Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired an online meeting of the Government Standing Committee with 26 localities on Covid-19 prevention and control. In the context of the complicated developments of the epidemic in many localities, although the Government and local ministries and branches have taken many drastic measures to prevent and control the epidemic, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc directed that solutions must be taken one step further, including speeding up the import of vaccines to have vaccines to serve the people.

The Prime Minister directed at the meeting. Photo: VGP

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control and localities for their calmness, urgency, and determination in the work of preventing and fighting the epidemic, so many localities have controlled the epidemic well, including strong measures such as social distancing. Thousands of medical staff have been reinforced for localities with large outbreaks. During Tet, many localities have advised people not to go far from home, not to set off fireworks, not to organize festivals or gather in large numbers.

Appreciating the determination of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, localities, ministries, sectors, especially the health sector, the Prime Minister said that right before Tet, he visited and encouraged health sector officials and employees, the white-shirt soldiers on the front line against the epidemic.

In the context of the complicated developments of the epidemic in many localities, the Prime Minister said that ministries and branches need to propose stronger solutions, including the issue of vaccines: "Some issues that the Prime Minister and the People are very concerned about, for example, the issue of vaccines for people at this time has become an urgent issue, and cannot be delayed or hesitated.

After this meeting, the Government Standing Committee will have a separate meeting to discuss more specific methods to quickly have vaccines for the people, which is a request of the Prime Minister for the health sector. The issue of social distancing according to Directive 16 in some localities is not really drastic. Regarding the issue of stopping festivals after Tet, I welcome Hanoi to stop festivals. Other localities must also discuss this and have determination on this issue to handle it thoroughly, we cannot lose our vigilance."

The Prime Minister also asked localities to impose stronger penalties on violations of the 5K, especially not wearing masks in public places. Measures need to be taken a step further to prevent and control the epidemic.

Regarding the case of the 54-year-old Japanese patient who passed away, who tested positive for Covid-19, the Minister of Health said that the virus concentration in this case was quite high, so two hypotheses were made. The first hypothesis is that the infection was new and could have been transmitted right in the Hanoi area and was not an F0. Besides this case, Hanoi also discovered two more cases in the same company as the Japanese patient who also tested positive for the virus concentration. Therefore, it is likely that the infection was only 5-7 days ago. The Ministry is conducting gene sequencing and will give results after 48 hours, at which time the virus strain of this patient can be determined.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long speaks at the meeting. Photo: VGP

The second hypothesis is that this case was infected from the quarantine area (when entering Vietnam). Although possible, according to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, this hypothesis has a low probability of happening, because 34 other people who traveled with the Japanese patient and were quarantined at the same hotel all tested negative.

Regarding this case, the Ministry of Health said that Hanoi City needs to consider this as a case of community transmission, and must implement measures to isolate, quarantine, collect samples for testing, and trace the places the patient visited and worked. This case shows that localities need to continue to be vigilant and strengthen measures to prevent Covid-19, and continue to closely monitor cases, especially foreigners entering the country from abroad from January 15 until now.