Community COVID Teams – Lessons from Bac Giang

To enhance the effectiveness of the community-based COVID-19 prevention and control team model, the Central Committee's Department of Mass Mobilization recently published an article introducing the operational experience of the community-based COVID-19 prevention and control team in Bac Giang province, aiming to replicate and promote the effectiveness of this model in mobilizing people to participate in COVID-19 prevention and control efforts.

Nghe An Newspaper proudly presents the following article:

1. Guidance and implementation

The fourth wave of COVID-19 in Bac Giang province was the largest and most unprecedented in terms of the number of cases. From May 7th to July 11th, 2021, the total number of F0 cases throughout the province was 5,766. In response, the Bac Giang Provincial Party Committee determined that "Communes and wards must be fortresses, every citizen a soldier in the fight against the epidemic, and the community COVID-19 team is a strategic weapon and a crucial core element to mobilize the strength of the entire population, determine victory, and firmly protect the achievements of COVID-19 prevention and control," especially given that herd immunity had not yet been achieved through vaccination.

The community-based Covid-19 team in Vinh City is primarily responsible for supplying food to residents in areas where the enhanced Directive 16 is in effect. Photo: Quang An

The community COVID-19 team is established by a decision of the People's Committee at the commune level, consisting of 3-5 people. The members include officials from villages, hamlets, residential groups, and various organizations, and especially include some healthy, enthusiastic, and dedicated residents in the community. Each team is led by a team leader. Each team is responsible for 30-50 households and has a specific list of assigned households.

Members of the community COVID-19 task force receive detailed training and guidance on their duties, regulations, procedures, and methods for carrying out their tasks safely and in accordance with regulations on epidemic prevention and control. The tasks of the community COVID-19 task force are designed by Bac Giang province with simple, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-implement content. To ensure smooth, timely, and consistent information flow, the province has directed the establishment of Zalo groups from the provincial level down to residential areas.

2. Activities of the Community COVID Team

Every day, the team members will go from street to street, knocking on every door, and checking on every individual to carry out the following five tasks:

- Disseminate information, mobilize, and remind people to implement disease prevention and control measures according to the 5K message. Require and guide people to self-monitor their health and measure their body temperature daily for all members of their household. Provide phone numbers and require people to proactively report any suspected COVID-19 symptoms to health authorities immediately; disseminate information and encourage families and workers to sign commitments to comply with disease prevention and control regulations.

- Immediately contact, monitor, detect, and report suspected COVID-19 cases detected in households via phone or Zalo to local authorities and commune health centers, such as fever, cough, sore throat, flu-like symptoms, general malaise, respiratory infections, etc., so that isolation and sample collection for testing can be organized promptly.

- Coordinate, detect, and report to competent authorities cases of individuals who do not voluntarily declare their health status; fail to comply with prescribed disease prevention and control measures; return from epidemic areas; or enter the country illegally.

- Assisting the government and health authorities in tracing F1 and F2 cases when there are confirmed cases in the assigned area; coordinating and supporting testing efforts to ensure disease prevention and accuracy in identifying individuals requiring testing.

- To understand the ideological situation and living conditions of the people and workers in the locality; to mobilize and support the people's lives; to guide households and supervise the harvesting of agricultural products to ensure safety and prevent disease outbreaks. To perform other tasks as assigned by the commune-level Steering Committee, within the scope of capabilities.

The results of carrying out these tasks are fully recorded daily in a logbook (a standardized logbook distributed throughout the province) and reported via Zalo to the commune, which then reports to the district, and the district reports to the province.

Furthermore, during the fourth wave of the pandemic, which coincided with the lychee, rice, and other agricultural harvests, the community COVID-19 teams played a crucial role, acting as a core force in achieving the dual goals of both combating the pandemic and maintaining production. The teams proactively organized the harvesting and sale of products for families without labor or those under home or centralized quarantine; arranged schedules for families to harvest agricultural products safely and prevent the spread of disease; and distributed donated goods and food to households fairly.

In practice, during the initial phase of the fourth wave of the pandemic, Bac Giang province had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, with a rapid rate of infection in a short period of time. In response, the province established 10,963 community COVID-19 teams, worker dormitory COVID-19 teams, and apartment building COVID-19 teams with nearly 40,000 members. These community COVID-19 teams clearly demonstrated their crucial role in:

(1) Propagating and mobilizing people to strictly implement the regulations on disease prevention and control of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 prevention and control, helping people understand and strictly implement social distancing regulations as a responsibility for their own health, their family's health and society, so each person must voluntarily implement it.

(2) Be sure to grasp the situation of the people, the epidemic situation, the lives of the people and workers, the difficulties that need help in social security, and the harvest of agricultural products to report promptly to the Party committee and local government or proactively discuss and resolve the issues right from the residential area.

It can be affirmed that this is a model that is directly close to the people; a direct bridge between the leadership and guidance of the Party and the State and the people; a model that profoundly reflects the principle of "the people know, the people discuss, the people do, the people inspect, the people supervise, and the people benefit" and is proof that the victory over the epidemic is a victory of the people.