Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on August 5 assigned four deputy prime ministers to missions related to the fight against Covid-19.

From left: Deputy PM Pham Binh Minh, DPM Le Minh Khai, DPM Vu Duc Dam, DPM Le Van Thanh. Photo: Ta Lu

Accordingly, Deputy PM Pham Binh Minh will take responsibility for external relations regarding Covid drugs, vaccines and tech transfer, and donation.

Deputy PM Le Minh Khai will be in charge of issues related to financial, tax, and insurance policies, bank interests, procurement mechanisms, prices of essential goods, stimulus packages to businesses, people, unemployed, and non-resident laborers in lockdown areas.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam, head of the National Steering Committee on Covid-19 Prevention and Control, assumes responsibilities for overseeing the battle, monitoring the purchase of medical equipment, allocating vaccines, developing homegrown vaccines, and inoculation campaign.

Deputy PM Le Van Thanh is responsible for tackling problems for businesses, maintaining production and supply chains, and circulation of essential goods.

In addition, heads of cities and provinces are required to put the people’s lives first and foremost to take tough precautionary measures to ensure safety and welfare in their localities, together with maintaining economic activities.

Vaccines and donation

On August 5, the Embassy of Saudi Arabia has donated US$500,000 for Vietnam’s anti-pandemic fight.

Wibar Abdullah I. Albaseer, Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Hanoi, expressed his hope that the donation would help Vietnam curb the pandemic.

To date, Vietnam has received roughly 18 million doses of vaccines from countries, partners, and international organizations, According to Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“In the context of vaccine scarcity and high demand for vaccines in many countries, including Vietnam, we appreciate and thank all donations even the smallest,” Hang said at the press conference Thursday.

According to the White House, Vietnam ranks among the seven most recipients of US donated vaccines together with Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

In addition, Australia, Cuba, India, Germany, the UK, among others have pledged to transfer vaccine production technologies to the country.

In terms of medical equipment, Vietnam has received from UNICEF, Australia, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

A shipper in Ho Chi Minh City gets vaccinated. Photo: Zing

Efforts to resume markets

Today, the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested cities and provinces to consider the reopening of affected wet markets on the condition that market managers and traders must inject at least one dose of vaccine and have a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

People coming to the market need to make medical declarations via QR Code or coupon with medical surveillance information and comply with the 5K (masking – disinfection – distance – no gathering – medical declaration) principle.

Some 24/24 public Covid-19 response teams will be deployed at the wholesale markets.

The move was made after big cities including Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Hanoi closed their biggest wholesale markets due to Covid-19.

“Authorized agencies are eligible to reopen the markets if the above requirements are met,” according to the ministry.

In addition, local governments are allowed to open temporary markets to function as shopping centers but they need to meet safety regulations to operate, the ministry required.

Daily infections

On August 5, the number of people infected with Covid-19 reached 7,239, including a half detected in Ho Chi Minh City while the city’s neighboring provinces like Binh Duong, Long An, Dong Nai, and Tay Ninh reported from more than 200 to more than 800 each.

So far, 58,040 out of total 185,057 have recovered while 2,720 died of Covid-19. More than 7.55 million vaccine doses have been administered, including nearly 779,000 fully vaccinated.

Khanh Hoa Province which is home to Nha Trang famous beach city will impose lockdown from August 6. The locality has confirmed more than 2,700 infections so far.

Vietnam's Covid-19 infections. Source: MoH. Chart: Minh Vu