Vietnam is expected to detect more Covid-19 cases in the community in the time ahead because the coronavirus pathogen has spread nationwide, Kinh Te & Do Thi quoted Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long as saying at an online meeting on August 27.

Vietnam has been proactive in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. Illustrative photo

The acting minister emphasized that over the past time, Vietnam has been proactive in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. With great efforts of the central agencies and local administrations, the pandemic situation in Vietnam’s three hardest hit localities, including the central city of Danang, neighboring Quang Nam province and the northern province of Hai Duong, has been put under control.

However, as the pandemic is still raging the world, the risk for Vietnam is both from the outside and the inside, thus, the whole country should get ready for the long-term fight against the pandemic, Mr. Long added.

“If we don't act swiftly, the spread of the pandemic will be faster than our response. Therefore, we have insisted on putting people who have made close contact with Covid-19 patients (F1) under quarantine to avoid spreading the disease and quickly remove coronavirus pathogen from the community," said the acting minister.

He noted that preventing Covid-19 in its second wave of infections is really a hard job for Vietnam’s health sector since the country has to fulfill the dual goal of fighting the pandemic and preventing economic disruption. The health sector has to double its effort in is battle.

Mr. Long said that basing on the lessons learned from Hanoi, Danang, Hai Duong, local governments should enhance supervision the prevention work under the following guidelines:
- Enforcing the anti-pandemic prevention regulations
- Enhancing testing capacity
- Enforcing medical declaration at health facilities
- Ensuring hospital safety
- Ensuring safety for healthcare workers
- Training on pandemic prevention for healthcare workers
- Handling cases of Vietnamese going abroad and tested positive for the coronavirus
- Proactively purchasing anti-epidemic materials in accordance with regulations.