Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long had a meeting with Mr. Kidong Park, WHO Chief Representative in Vietnam.
At the meeting, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that this wave of the pandemic may continue for a long time, due to the very high speed transmission of the Delta variant.
At the meeting (Photo: VGP)
In response to this wave, Vietnam has applied many drastic and stronger measures than in previous waves, including social distancing in many provinces and cities.
The Ministry of Health has established ICU centers in the southern provinces managed by central hospitals, with leading experts gathering to help the locality care for and treat COVID-19 patients effectively. In Ho Chi Minh City, for example, there are currently 5 resuscitation centers with a capacity of 2,700 ICU beds.
“Hanoi is also urgently building an ICU and preparing added emergency beds, which is expected to be completed in the near future," said Minister Nguyen Thanh Long.
Regarding vaccines, the Ministry of Health has been making efforts to access all sources that can supply vaccines as quickly as possible, to vaccinate people as soon as possible. The Ministry of Health also directed speeding up vaccination to increase vaccine coverage. However, vaccine supply is still the biggest challenge in August and September.
The WHO representative in Vietnam assessed that this 4th outbreak in Vietnam is very difficult to deal with, with the high infection rate of the Delta variant. However, Vietnam has been "on the right track" in applying pandemic prevention measures.
He expressed his belief that Vietnam can overcome the pandemic with the participation of both the political system and the people. WHO in Vietnam is ready to accompany the Government of Vietnam and the Ministry of Health in the fight against the pandemic.
In particular, Dr. Kidong Park highly appreciated that Vietnam has urgently established ICU centers in Ho Chi Minh City and southern provinces, to treat severe and critical COVID-19 patients in order to reduce the mortality rate.
The WHO representative in Vietnam also said that the organization is ready to support the Ministry of Health in enhancing professional training for staff and infection prevention measures for health workers.
Regarding vaccines, Mr. Park Kidong also affirmed that all COVID-19 vaccines approved by this organization are safe and effective. He affirmed that he would be willing to support the Ministry of Health in capacity building, testing, evaluation and licensing of domestically produced vaccines through the NRA system in accordance with regulations. Currently, Vietnam is one of 39 countries certified by WHO to meet this standard.
Up to now, Ho Chi Minh City is the locality that has been allocated the largest number of vaccine doses, with 4,075,270; followed by Hanoi with 2,943,770 doses./.