Prime Minister: Coordinate to take and pick up people with necessary and legitimate needs to return home safely and thoughtfully

The content of the telegram is as follows:

After a long period of social distancing according to Directive 16 of the Prime Minister, a part of people in Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong... have the needmove back to the countrysideThis is a legitimate need of the people, however, if the pick-up and drop-off are not well organized and people have to spontaneously return to their hometowns, it will lead to the risk of the disease spreading to many localities across the country.

In the past few days, although provinces and cities have tried to organize safe pick-up and drop-off, due to the large number of people wanting to return to their hometowns at the same time, the coordination between localities has not been proactive and smooth, causing congestion at epidemic control points and many people, including the elderly and children, have had to work very hard. In particular, some people have voluntarily left their place of residence, but because their hometowns are very far away, they have encountered many risks to their health along the way and can spread the epidemic.

To continue implementing epidemic control solutions, while ensuring that people with necessary and legitimate needs are taken home safely and thoughtfully, the Prime Minister requests:

1. Provinces and centrally run cities continue to implement the Prime Minister's direction in Official Dispatch No. 1625/CD-TTg dated September 30, 2021, Official Dispatch No. 122 DK dated October 1, 2021 of the Government Office. The coordination of picking up and dropping off people must be carried out more quickly and smoothly, avoiding congestion at gateway control points.

2. Localities where the epidemic situation has not yet been completely controlled but have stopped implementing Directive 16 should continue to actively mobilize and convince people to stay in their hometowns, support social security, and safely restore production and business. For those who still want to return to their hometowns, they should proactively make a list, notify the local authorities of their destination, and organize pick-up and drop-off at their destination.

For people who have reached the checkpoints at the gateways of the province or city to return to their hometown, it is necessary to immediately divide into groups, implement measures to ensure epidemic safety, contact the province or city of destination and organize to take people away. Arrange safe means of transportation for those who do not have a vehicle or the elderly, pregnant women, and children in need. Provinces and cities along the way are responsible for coordinating to ensure smooth traffic and provide support if necessary. The province or city of destination is responsible for receiving, receiving handover and implementing measures to ensure epidemic safety according to regulations.

3. If provinces and cities detect people spontaneously returning from epidemic areas to their hometowns and passing through their localities, they must proactively provide necessary support, notify the destination province or city, and organize the safe transfer of people to prevent the spread of the disease. Arrange convenient means of transportation if people do not have suitable means of transportation.

4. The Ministry of Health shall immediately distribute vaccines after receiving them, giving priority to provinces with many people returning from epidemic areas; supporting testing equipment and biological products; and supporting medicines so that localities with people returning can test promptly and be ready to treat new COVID-19 cases. Based on the requests of localities, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Defense shall strengthen and support human resources to ensure epidemic prevention and control work.

* According to reports from the Mekong Delta provinces, in recent days each province has welcomed tens of thousands of people from Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An...

Most of the people who spontaneously returned to their hometowns were freelance workers, a small number were workers, and through rapid testing, cases of COVID-19 infection were detected.

For example, An Giang has had 40,000 people return, through rapid testing, 190 people infected with SARS-CoV-2, Kien Giang has 32,000 people, 122 people infected... Through calculation, about 0.1% to 0.2% of people are infected with COVID-19 and if not controlled, the risk of spreading to the community is very high.