Hanoi's health sector has asked relevant units to continue monitoring the Covid-19 pandemic situation and be ready to take on new strains, said Director of Hanoi's Department of Health Tran Thi Nhi Ha.

"As of September 30, the city has registered more than 1.6 million cases of Covid-19. More than 21 million doses of vaccines have been administered. Among them, 98.6% of people over 18 years of age received the third dose, 99.9% of children in the age group have been injected with the second dose, and the coverage of the second dose for children aged 5 to under 12 years is 46.3%," Ha said.

Units have increased testing, screening and gene sequencing of Covid-19 cases to assess the infection of the Omicron variant in Hanoi. Photo: VGP

"A new sub-variant of Omicron, known as XBB, has recently caused a significant increase in Covid-19 cases in Singapore. Given the complicated evolution of the pandemic caused by the Omicron variant in the world, the health sector of Singapore Hanoi has asked all relevant units to promptly prepare plans on vaccines, therapeutic drugs and anti-pandemic measures in response to the new SARS-CoV-2 virus strain," Ha stressed.

He added that the health sector had asked localities to strengthen pandemic prevention and control measures, accelerate vaccination, and reinforce medical personnel, supplies and equipment in localities with complicated pandemic evolution.

"Localities also need to proactively implement appropriate measures to treat new cases early to limit the occurrence of serious illness and death," the director noted.

Regarding human resources for medical examination and treatment at medical centers, the report noted that 100% of medical stations have doctors working at the stations, of which 86.3% have a doctor working full time at the station.

The school health program has cooperated with district health centers to check school health work and pandemic prevention in 107 secondary schools in 29 of the 30 districts.

In the coming time, Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Tran Thi Nhi Ha, the city's health sector will work to ensure adequate facilities of medicines, chemicals and medical equipment to prevent the pandemic of Covid-19 and other diseases.

"The city's health sector will focus on improving the quality of medical examination and treatment at health stations and polyclinics to draw more patients and reduce the load on higher-level health centers," Ha emphasized.