ANNOUNCEMENT

CONCLUSION OF THE PRIME MINISTER NGUYEN XUAN PHUC AT THE ONLINE MEETING OF THE STANDING GOVERNMENT WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PERTAINING TO COVID-19 CONTROL

In the afternoon of August 2, 2020, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc held the online meeting of the Standing Government with local governments pertaining to COVID-19 prevention and control. Attendees included: Truong Thi Mai, Member of the Politburo, Secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party’s Central Committee, Director of Vietnam’s Communist Party’s Central Committee’s Commission for Mass Mobilization; Vuong Dinh Hue, Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Communist Party’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; Nguyen Thien Nhan, Member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Communist Party’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; Tran Thanh Man, Secretary of the Central Communist Party's Committee, Chairperson of the Central Committee of Viet Nam Fatherland Front; Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung; Minister and Director of the Office of the Government Mai Tien Dung, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, Acting Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, Head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Adolescents and Children Pham Thanh Binh, Vice Director of the Administrative Office Nguyen Dac Vinh, representative of the Communist Party’s Central Committee’s Publicity and Education Commission; members of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control; representatives of heads of Communist Party's Committees of provinces and cities, People's Committees, Communist Party’s Committees’ Commission for Mass Mobilization of provinces and cities, Vietnamese Fatherland Front of provinces and central-affiliated cities.

Upon listening to report of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and remarks of members of the Politburo, Chairperson of the Central Committee of Viet Nam Fatherland Front, Deputy Prime Ministers, and other meeting attendees, the Prime Minister remarks as follows:

1. The Prime Minister highly appreciated the views, orientations and measures of the health sector, provinces and central-affiliated cities pertaining to epidemic prevention and control; praised the efforts of the health sector, and provinces, cities such as: Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Dak Lak, Thai Binh for synchronously, strongly and timely implementing appropriate measures, including social distancing to prevent and control the epidemic.

2. Vietnam has entered the second phase of COVID-19 prevention and control. The disease is at risk of spreading rapidly on a large scale in many provinces and cities, including large urban areas, seriously threatening human life, health, and the country's socio-economic development.

The Prime Minister hereby requests ministries, central departments, and governments of all levels to coordinate measures for effective epidemic control, not to be complacent, not allow the epidemic to spread on a larger scale, including:

- Continue to deeply publicize, strictly implement the idea of “fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy”, continue to mobilize the participation of the whole political system and the entire general people, uphold the order, discipline, and responsibility of people in charge, leadership in coordinating and directing epidemic prevention and control operations; refrain from being negligent, complacent, bewildered, wavering.

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- Closely monitor the situation, be calm, respond, and strictly implement guidelines of the central government, the Government, the Prime Minister, and the National Steering Committee; determine to successfully quell the outbreak and prevent further spread.

- Rapidly and extensively handle “infection clusters”, high risk areas in Da Nang City; make use of every hour and every minute to trace and identify confirmed cases, suspected cases.

- Apply appropriate isolation measures, medical supervision, and testing on a large scale for all cases of contact with confirmed cases, suspected cases, and people who have been to Da Nang City since July 1, 2020 and returned. First of all, focus the cases that have been to the "infection clusters", the areas that have been quarantined and isolated in Da Nang City.

- By all appropriate measures, mobilize the general public to make health declaration, monitor health, and notify in case of having fever or coughing. Promptly detect, inspect, and test everyone coughing or having a fever on a nationwide scale.

- Strictly implement safety measures and epidemic control measures in all activities, events, crowded areas, public transport, and major cities.

- Provinces where no infected cases are recorded in the community must take appropriate measures to prevent and control the epidemic; focus on coordinating and promoting the development of production and business activities, preventing disruption due to epidemics, especially in urban areas, large economic centers, factories and enterprises, markets, causing obstacles to production, especially export production.

3. Da Nang City and provinces that have recorded confirmed cases in this period (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Thai Binh, Dak Lak...) shall drastically implement effective measures for tracing, localizing, isolating, quelling the epidemic, and quickly handling outbreaks in the area; actively promote the role of leaders of Party committees, authorities at all levels and heads of agencies in the grassroots political system in epidemic prevention and control.

Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces and cities shall actively and promptly decide on the application of epidemic prevention and control measures appropriate to their competence while refraining from being subjective or negligent, and effectively implement the prevention of disease spread. However, it is necessary to minimize adverse impacts on people's lives and socio-economic activities in the area. Consider the scale and scope when adopting social distancing.

4. Assign Ministry of Information and Communications to take charge and cooperate with Ministry of Health and People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities to enforce the application of Bluezone for detecting and tracking suspected cases.

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a) strengthening, improvement of testing quality, increase of testing capacity, implementation of appropriate testing strategies, mobilization of medical facilities capable of performing testing, including private health facilities; payment for the cost of COVID-19 testing from health insurance sources according to the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Social Security, ensuring strict and adequate compliance with regulations.

b) preparation of human resources, facilities, materials, and equipment for the purpose of receiving and treating infected persons; construction of makeshift hospitals in an economical and safe manner.

c) reviewing and strengthening of epidemic control and prevention in medical facilities, prevention of infection clusters in medical facilities. Implementation of routing and classification to prevent infection within medical facilities; preparation of adequate protection equipment for health workers engaging in epidemic prevention and control.

d) effective treatment, minimizing of fatalities; safety measures for patients, especially those in hospitals; increase of cooperation and technical exchange between hospital levels in treating COVID-19 patients.

6. Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security, People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall:

a) continue to control all inbound passengers on road, waterway, seaway, and airports; closely monitor illegal entry via trails; strictly control accommodations, areas with high foreigner concentration, etc.

Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security shall press charge and take strict actions against cases of illegal entry, accommodations that shelter illegal migrants, especially individuals, organizations, and entities that facilitate illegal entry into Vietnam as per the law.

b) continue to successfully organize medical quarantine; carry out review and inspection of the entire process so that no infection occurs in concentrated quarantine facilities; devise plans for reasonably regulating the reception, classification, and screening of cases requiring isolation, and preventing overloading in concentrated isolation facilities.

7. Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information and Communications, People’s Committees of provinces and central-affiliated cities shall take strict actions against misinformation, failure to make health declaration, failure to make adequate health declarations, failure to comply with medical quarantine, and speculation as per the law.

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9. Ministry of Education and Training shall, depending on practical situation, coordinate strict and safe implementation of high school final exams, especially in provinces and cities where social distancing is in effect while ensuring compliance with the law of final exam and university entrance exam. Refrain from organizing exams without ensuring safety for students, teachers, and parents.

10. Ministry of Information and Communications and Ministry of Health shall:

a) continue to provide timely, complete, public and transparent information on epidemic developments, so that people can rest assured, raise vigilance, and at the same time not cause panic in society; gather information on limiting mass gatherings, encourage and guide voluntary medical declaration, use the Bluezone application, detect early and notify the authorities of suspected cases or persons returning home from infected areas.

b) encourage people to raise awareness of self-preservation for themselves and the community (keep hygiene, wear masks in public places and on public transport, reduce gatherings, keep a safe distance when making contact, eat healthily, exercise) and implement recommendations of the authorities on the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, especially the elderly, persons with underlying diseases and people in areas with “infection clusters”.

11. Request the Commission for Mass Mobilization and Vietnamese Fatherland Front of all levels to mobilize the general public to stay alert and actively implement epidemic control and prevention measures.

The Prime Minister requests the general public to be alert to prevent infection, not be panic or worried, and continue to trust, support, voluntarily participate, and strictly implement epidemic prevention and control measures of the Government, the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee for Epidemic Prevention and Control and the Ministry of Health. Each citizen is a soldier, each village, hamlet, village, hamlet, neighborhood... is a fortress, and working together to fight the epidemic.

12. In addition to extensive epidemic prevention and control, departments and governments of all levels must extensively implement practical solutions for promptly dealing with difficulties in manufacturing and business activities in order to ensure social security, including:

a) Review and removal of obstacles in the implementation of support packages (social security package, fiscal package and monetary - credit package); at the same time, proposition for the increase of scale, scope, beneficiaries, time limit, and methods of fast and effective implementation of these support packages in order to promote production and business activities and especially ensure the quality of life of workers.

b) Further encouragement and promotion of the deployment of applications on online platforms (teaching, telemedicine, working, online meetings; providing online public services, e-commerce, etc.); extensive application of digital transformation, effective support for businesses, encouragement for young people to contribute to the digital transformation process.

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a) Regarding the purchase of equipment: Allow advance for the purpose of procuring necessary equipment for epidemic prevention and control. Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance shall guide local governments to promptly and adequately implement.

b) Ministry of Health shall request the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 to report to the Prime Minister to decide to fund COVID-19 testing using state budget.

c) Allow tourists trapped in Da Nang City due to social distancing to return home and adopt medical monitoring and quarantine measures upon returning to their home.

14. Ministry of Health shall take charge and cooperate with the Office of the Government to prepare, request the Prime Minister to consider, promulgate new Directive of the Prime Minister on COVID-19 prevention and control in the new normal (replacing Directive No. 16/CT-TTg and Directive No. 19/CT-TTg).

15. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall present citizen protection solution in the new normal to the Prime Minister.

For your implementation./.

MINISTER, DIRECTOR




Mai Tien Dung

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