Covid-19 Weekly Update in Vietnam - Week 4 September 2021

In general, the situation of the whole country in the past week has made positive changes and gradually returned to a "new normal". The number of new cases in the community, serious cases and deaths is constantly decreasing. Some provinces have taken early steps in loosening social distancing. The whole country had administered more than 38.3 million doses as of September 26, 2021, with more than 30.4 million people receiving first shots and 7.9 million people getting two shots.
  
GENERAL SUMMARY
According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, the number of cases reduced by 9.7% in 23 localities practicing social distance in the previous week, while the number of deaths decreased by 12.1%. It demonstrates that the COVID-19 outbreak is gradually being brought under control.  Therefore, based on the epidemic scenario that is gradually becoming positive, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh estimated that from now until September 30, there will be a progressive easing of the controlled social distance to restore socio-economic development.

Furthermore, there are now available several applications for epidemic prevention and control, such as the Ministry of Health's "Electronic health book," the Ministry of Information and Communications' NCOVI, Bluezone, and the Ministry of Public Security's VNEID... Many provinces and cities develop their own apps as well. The Prime Minister requested Ministers and Departments to agree to utilize a single application. The new app will connect each citizen's medical information, such as vaccinations, tests, and contact history with F0... There will be a "green pass" if persons have safe medical data, such as vaccinations with complete doses of vaccine. A "yellow pass" is given to people who receive a dose of the vaccination and test negative. There is a "red pass" for those who have not been vaccinated or tested positive.

Regarding the vaccination process, on September 20, Vietnam and Cuba reached an agreement to import the Abdala COVID-19 vaccine. The Abdala vaccine is up to 99.92% effective against SARS-CoV-2. The two countries' ministries of health have agreed to buy 5 million doses of the Abdala vaccine for adults and can buy another 5 million doses for children.
 
HANOI PANDEMIC UPDATE
Based on the current situation, Hanoi decided to loosen social distancing as of September 21. The territory of Hanoi will adopt Directive 15 for Hanoi to gradually revert to its normal state. 

In order for Hanoi to gradually recover its socio-economically, local agencies and businesses can now arrange for employees to work on a 50/50 rule (50% at headquarters and 50% working at home). Facilities that provide essential goods and services are permitted to open and close before 9 p.m. daily. Technology application transportation services have been allowed to reopen.
Activities that continue to be suspended include passenger transportation by land and water, cultural, athletic, and recreational activities in public locations, and activities at religious and religious establishments. Furthermore, Hanoi continues to aggressively prepare for a scenario in which the number of cases increases, ready to deal with the worst-case scenario, based on previous epidemic prevention experience. The Hanoi Department of Health requires medical facilities and centers to be ready to implement procedures to investigate, trace, and test suspicious cases as quickly as possible so that they may be located and dealt with. When it comes to disease prevention and control, we can not be subjective, ignore, or lose awareness.

In terms of vaccination, the total number of vaccines administered in Hanoi so far is 6,710,456 doses, with 95.71% coverage for the first injection (5,761,551 doses) and 15.76% coverage for the second injection (948,905 shots). In addition, the Chairman of Hanoi expects Hanoi to finish the second dosage of coverage based on distributed vaccines by the end of November 2021 and encourage vaccine sourcing for children under 18. 

HO CHI MINH CITY PANDEMIC UPDATE
The anti-epidemic situation in Ho Chi Minh City has shown positive signs. However, the city has not achieved the target as planned before September 15, so the steering committee and the people need to strive harder to bring the city back to the "new normal" soon.

According to the Center for Disease Control of HCMC (HCDC), the city will gradually restore economic activities, in which transport of essential goods will be prioritized. The city also plans to welcome workers back to work with the goal of creating favorable conditions for workers, but must ensure epidemic prevention and control. In addition, the leader of Ho Chi Minh City made a decision to remove the roadblocks before September 30

For shipping services (shipper) in the city, The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade also requires training for shippers to self-test and take responsibility for their own disease screening. This is considered a suitable decision with the current situation of the city and accelerates the COVID testing process.
For F0 cases in the city, the Department of Health asked the Steering Committees for Disease Prevention and Control of districts to urgently develop a plan to establish a team to take care of people infected with COVID-19 in the community. The Care Team will support F0 treatment at home, perform testing in the community; vaccination support and support drug distribution to people.

Regarding vaccinations, Ho Chi Minh City has a very specific implementation of vaccination for people. Specifically, 100 000 doses of the vaccine are sent to hospitals with obstetrics departments to be administered to pregnant women over 13 weeks. In addition, the Department of Health of the city will also study vaccines for children under the age of 18  and create conditions for foreigners living in the area to be fully vaccinated.   

TOURISM UPDATE
On September 24, the Hanoi Travel Association built and proposed the project "Green-Green Campaign". This is considered as a campaign to restore tourism in the “new normal” period. The "green" criteria are set out, the first one is that tourists must get enough 2 vaccine doses or have recovered from infection, have tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 when traveling outside the province. The second is a tourism business with a fully vaccinated workforce and the final criteria is a “green” service chain includes tours and self-contained services, accommodation facilities, restaurants, and safe transport units. 
The travel agents such as Hanoitourist or Vietfoot Travel have plans with specific travel products to be ready for this return. Accordingly, Ms. Le Thanh Thao, Vice President of the Hanoi Travel Association, suggested that localities with tourism activities prioritize vaccination for the tourism workforce and provide services to start safely when allowed.


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* Source: moh.gov.vn, dantri.com, nld.com.vn, VnExpress, HCDC, Sở Y Tế, Báo Tiền phong, Vietnamnet.
Previous weeks updates
- Week 3. September 2021
- Week 2. September 2021