Covid-19 weekly update in Vietnam - Week 4, July 2021

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In only one week, the statistics of Covid-19 patients changed drastically, which put all citizens and the government of Vietnam in an absolutely difficult position. The government had to apply stricter rules and regulations in order to hold back to expansion of the Delta type virus.

GENERAL SUMMARY
Within 7 days, the Ministry of Health has confirmed new statistics on the total number of cases, recoveries, deaths and those in treatment.

According to news over the past week, the government is looking forward to the fifth period of vaccination for Ho Chi Minh City as this is currently the largest red zone of Vietnam. In addition to that, the scientists and specialised doctors continue to study on Vietnamese vaccine types: Nanocovax and COVIVAX. Along with the evaluation of World Wide Health (WHO), these two vaccines are likely to be assessed by the end of August (for Nanocavax) and by September (for COVIVAX).

Meanwhile, as the virus is expanding rapidly, the doctors working in the front line can sometimes be very occupied. They have a great deal of patients and suspected F1 cases to take care of. Realising the case, multiple citizens have been buying self-tests for a quick check of their own health to see whether they get infected. However, this act is not advisable by the Ministry of Health. They explain that the home test can only show reliable results within the first 7 days of infection. After that, the concentration of virus gets lower, it will be hard to verify if one is positive or not. Furthermore, some might buy the wrong type of test (either with no permission nor assessment) with low quality in the online market. In addition, the result will only be effective at the moment of test, one can still get infected without strictly obeying the restrictions afterwards.

HANOI PANDEMIC UPDATES
After seven days of applying the restrictions on social distancing for Hanoi, the capital still confirms more and more cases of infection. It was reported that the number of F1 patients, who turned positive afterwards, had risen sharply with no clear trace of F0 source. According to the summary of the Ministry of Health, by Sunday 25th July, Hanoi had in total 454 new cases, particularly calculated from the 5th July.

While the city was under average restrictions, a part of the citizens in Hanoi still didn’t follow the regulations strictly, some even tried to break the rules. With such circumstance going on, plus the dramatic increase in F0, F1 patients, the authorities of Hanoi had to put the capital under directive 16 restrictions for 15 days. Therefore, almost all services were shut down since Saturday 24th July. Moreover, the casual service of technological moto-taxi for F&B deliveries were also put on pause. Ever since, the streets in Hanoi have returned to the state of being much less occupied. The city council is also thinking of new treatment measures. They intend to cover 4 floors of each hospital for treatment with nearly 50.000 beds for treatment if the pandemic situation in Hanoi gets worse.
HO CHI MINH CITY PANDEMIC UPDATES
Meanwhile, in Ho Chi Minh City, the number of patients per day was still confirmed high, but there was a small decrease, which could be considered as good news. Still, the situation wasn’t firmly in control. Statistics showed that there were 59.388 cases in total by Sunday 25th July. The Ministry of Health and HCMC authorities are planning new steps in the fight of Coronavirus for the whole city:
First of all, they ordered special troops to sanitize all residences, all streets and all districts in 7 days from the 23rd July. 
Second, they enhanced the directive 16 to directive 16+ with new regulations as followed:
- Citizens are to stay indoors and go out with an attestation when necessary. If one does not follow strictly, he will be fined immediately at the highest rate.
- Quarantine checkpoints in publics prevent citizens from making close contacts among individuals, families, households, alleys, streets, districts. Red zones, green zones, yellow zones must be isolated from each other.
- Enforce all support troops for COVID emergency act in public when required.

TOURISM UPDATE
A few weeks ago, there was a request to open borders for tourist activities in Phu Quoc island which belongs to the province of Kien Giang. The request received the support from the Ministry of transportation. The Ministry thinks that the request needs a proper plan to be well prepared for all citizens living in the area, making sure that the prevention from covid infection caused by foreign customers is a must. In fact, the province of Kien Giang has planned to have citizens vaccinated to serve the tourism industry of the province. As foreseen, the authorities seek to give vaccination to 127.607 individuals working in the service and tourism sector, including residents and staff within the area of request. Specifically, around 60.000 are people working in the sectors of tourism, service, entertainment and are providers of services, goods for chosen areas. Prior to the request, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism also thought of testing to welcome foreign customers to Phu Quoc island, of course, these clients must possess a vaccination confirmation.

At the same time, the province of Khanh Hoa (famous for Nha Trang) foresees serving tourists starting from the end of 2021. Besides the condition of possession of Covid vaccination confirmation, the last injection of the customers must be within 14 days before arrival in Vietnam. The local authorities of the province have passed an agreement document on this constructive idea advised by the Department of Tourism. The Department of Tourism will work directly with the Department of Health, the Council of Tourism of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa to build a plan accordingly for further consideration. Stay in touch with Trusted DMC for more updates on the pandemic in Vietnam

* Source: ncov.moh.gov.vn, Thanh nien, VnExpress, Lao dong, Thu vien phap luat, Dan tri
 
Previous weeks updates
- Week 3, July 2021
- Week 2, July 2021