Vietnam shifts from zero Covid-19 strategy

Prime minister Pham minh Chinh said the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control has agreed to change the strategy policy from “zero Covid-19” to “safe and flexible adaptation and effective control of the Covid-19 pandemic”, striving to bring the country back to a new normal by the end of the month.

He made the statement at the committee’s meeting to review the leadership, direction, implementation of measures to prevent and control the pandemic in the past; analysing results, limitations, causes in pandemic prevention and control.

Speaking at the online meeting between the Steering Committee and officials from 10,400 communes, wards and townships, 705 districts, and 63 cities and provinces nationwide on Saturday, the Pm noted that so far, Covid-19 has been gradually controlled in the majority of localities, but complicated developments continue.

A report from the steering committee at the meeting said that, from the beginning of the fourth wave of the pandemic to Sept 24, the whole country recorded 734,000 cases, while 503,000 people or 69% have recovered, and more than 18,000 deaths were reported.

Last week, there were 72,236 new cases, down 9.7% compared to the previous week and the number of deaths in the week decreased by 12.1% compared to the previous week. Currently, there are 16 out of 63 provinces and cities that have gone 14 days without any new infections.

in 23 localities implementing social distancing measures, the pandemic situation is gradually being controlled, the number of cases in the last seven days decreased by 9.8% compared to the same previous period.

regarding vaccinations, as of Sept 24, 2021, the whole country had administered 37.6 million doses, with more than 30 million people receiving first shots and 7.5 million people getting two shots, while about 14 million more vaccine doses will continue to be administered.

At the meeting, leaders of ministries, sectors and localities shared their experiences in pandemic prevention and control.

While lauding localities’ efforts in the pandemic fight, Chinh also pointed to shortcomings in the field, including the ineffective implementation of directions in some localities, particularly at grassroots level, slow testing progress and inefficiency in conducting support policies for pandemic-hit groups.