Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh: Subjectivity and negligence in the face of the epidemic will have to pay the price

Prime Minister: We have momentum in vaccination in epidemic prevention, we need to take advantage of the opportunity to speed up the vaccination rate. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Also attending the meeting were: General Phan Van Giang - Politburo member, Minister of National Defense; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Central Mass Mobilization Commission Bui Thi Minh Hoai; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai; Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam; members of the Steering Committee, leaders of ministries, branches and central agencies.

Attending the meeting connected to provinces and cities online were the Secretaries and Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh spent a lot of time analyzing and once again emphasizing that we will never forget the days when medical capacity was limited, there was not much experience, there were not enough vaccines and medicines to treat Covid-19, we were forced to use administrative measures to prevent and fight the epidemic, which was both confusing and passive, took a lot of effort and resources, made many sacrifices and losses, and severely affected social activities.

However, when the epidemic was just controlled, subjective, negligent, and unvigilant psychology reappeared, both in terms of awareness, propaganda, and direction and implementation. Meanwhile, the epidemic continues to develop in a complicated and unpredictable manner in the world. Many developed countries with modern healthcare systems are also experiencing outbreaks again. On the other hand, our country's economy is highly open, its scale is still modest, and its resilience is limited, so even a small change from the outside can have a major impact on the country.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Tran Van Son speaks at the meeting. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

We have drawn up a formula and motto for epidemic prevention and control, in which practice shows that vaccines are still the decisive weapon. Both during the peak of the epidemic and immediately after the epidemic was controlled, the Government and the Prime Minister issued many telegrams and documents directing and urging strongly with the request to continue to carry out the task of vaccinating people, but so far the set target has not been achieved. When the epidemic was complicated, every locality requested vaccines, but when the epidemic was just controlled, vaccination slowed down. On the other hand, there are also localities with many economic and social difficulties but made efforts to deploy vaccination, achieving positive results.

According to the Prime Minister, we have momentum in vaccination in the fight against the epidemic, we need to take advantage of the opportunity to speed up the vaccination rate; at the same time, assess community immunity nationwide. The Ministry of Health must be more proactive and focus on directing the Departments of Health; Party committees at all levels must focus on leadership, authorities at all levels must organize implementation; people must participate more actively in carrying out this task.

Acting Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan reports on the situation at the meeting. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The Prime Minister emphasized the spirit of prevention is better than cure; requires strengthening leadership, direction, drastic and close, absolutely must not be negligent, subjective, lose vigilance; must shoulder together, each level, each sector must be concerned, responsible for epidemic prevention and control work; work with focus, key points, finish each task. Synchronously deploy many solutions such as improving the capacity of preventive medicine and grassroots medicine; increase allowances for medical staff, restructure the medical workforce; continue to call on the international community, businesses to support the epidemic prevention and control work...

The Prime Minister especially emphasized the need to innovate propaganda methods, raise people's awareness, and ensure greater effectiveness. The Prime Minister also requested that we cannot let "epidemic overlap epidemic" when many diseases appear and develop complicatedly such as dengue fever, monkeypox, etc.

The Prime Minister stated that if we do not resolutely carry out these tasks, we will be passive and confused, and if we are subjective and negligent, we will have to pay the price. This is unacceptable when we have experience and have drawn formulas and principles for disease prevention and control.