Determination set on suppressing re-occurrance of Covid-19 outbreaks

In the morning of November 16, Binh Duong provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control held an online briefing with districts, towns and cities on the epidemic situation in the province. In the past week, the number of F0 cases in the community has decreased while the number of patients discharged from the hospital and recovered from Covid-19 has increased; however, people's awareness is still low as they have received 2 doses of the vaccines.

The reduced F0 in community

In the past 7 days, the Covid-19 epidemic situation in the province has tended to be stable and well controlled in the new normal state. In which, the number of F0 detected in the community decreased by 38.1% compared to the previous week for an average of only 59 cases per day. The number of F0 in the community has decreased but it is not sustainable. As most of the outbreaks outside the community have been controlled, the number of new cases in the week was mainly detected in the lockdown and quarantine areas, which was accounted for more than 72% of the total number of infections in the week. Along with that, the number of patients discharged from the hospital and recovered is increasing. The number of new cases in a week is about more than 4,000 cases and hospital discharge is more than 5,300 cases which is an average of 600 cases per day and 760 discharges per day. Accordingly, the number of deaths also decreased by 27.8% compared to the previous week; the number of patients moving from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor of the treatment triage decreased by 2.1% compared to the previous week; the number of patients requiring oxygen also decreased by 21.2%.

The Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control demands medical sector, for the time to come, to review and accelerate 2^nd dose of vaccine coverage on the public. In this photo: Vaccines are administered to locals of Ben Cat town. Photo: Minh Duy

However, according to members of the provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, there is still a part of people who are subjective and neglectful when they have had 2 doses of the vaccines and do not strictly follow the recommendations of the health sector. There are still cases of people not wearing masks along with gathering. On the whole, people have been aware of health protection, self-testing and screening when having symptoms of suspected illness, cough, fever, and runny nose with a detection rate of 30%. According to a survey of the health sector, recently new cases are people who have been vaccinated. It is forecast that in the coming weeks, the number of F0 will increase again in the condition that the province realizes the dual goals of fighting the epidemic and developing the economy.

Implementing the policy of bringing medical care to the grassroots, 153 mobile medical stations in the province are managing and monitoring the health of more than 6,800 F0 at home. In particular, during the week, the number of new F0 being monitored and cared for at home increased by 43.9% compared to the previous week which was an average of 484 new F0 treated at home every day. The number of people receiving health guidance and counseling is more than 6,000 people which was an increase of 65.6% compared to the previous week along with an average of 384 visits of F0 daily at home and 4 severe cases required referral.

Treatment promoted

At the meeting, localities and members of the steering committee shared the same opinion that the epidemic situation in the province has been well controlled as the province is adapting better and flexibly to the "new normal" conditions of Covid-19 epidemic prevention, production recovery and economic development. In the near future, the number of infections in the province is likely to increase, but the province has experienced in fighting the epidemic and prepared all plans and scenarios, so it is determined not to let the disease re-emerge.

Concluding the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, Member of the Party Central Committee and Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Head of the provincial National Assembly Delegation, Head of the provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said that under the "new normal" conditions, the whole province has achieved the dual goals of preventing and controlling the epidemic while boosting production and socio-economic development, but the province has reaped many results in effective control of the Covid-19 epidemic. According to the forecast, the number of infections in the province will tend to increase in the coming time, so the number of hospital admissions will also increase. The province has always determined that the task of fighting the epidemic is always an important content. If we want to open the door for economic development, we must well control the epidemic.

The provincial Party Committee, Department of Health's Propaganda, and Department of Health collaborated with other sectors to launch a health communication campaign fỏ safe adaptation to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic including instructions on treatment regimens for Covid-19 according to Oriental Medicine. Localities, especially communes, wards and townships need to promote visual and vivid propaganda for any case on arriving at the locality with suspicious symptoms (cough, fever, etc.) that need to contact the hotline for medical assistance. Sectors, units and localities at district and commune levels must strengthen inspection on handling and sanctioning cases of non-observance of the "5K" disease prevention measures as recommended by the Ministry of Health.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee emphasized that in this period the province needed to continue to reduce the casualty rate. It is possible that F0 quantity will increase in the "new normal", so the health sector must take care of each case. The health sector should train and transfer to grassroots health workers and advise the Standing provincial Party Committee to ensure sufficient human resources and quickly rearrange facilities on the principle of 5 enough: enough people, enough medicine, enough oxygen, enough facilities, and enough budget for epidemic prevention and control. Regarding the vaccination, the health sector needs to review and speed up the rate of vaccination against Covid-19. Steering Committees at all levels should step up inspection. The Secretary of the provincial Party Committee suggested that localities should take all measures to prevent the outbreak of Covid-19 again, especially home treatment must send people to closely monitor and provision of medicine for F0 to treat at home must be timely; he inquired that the medical system must absolutely not let F0 decease at home.

Reported by Hoang Linh – Translated by Vi Bao