At the press meeting
Yesterday, Ho Chi Minh City's Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control held a press conference to provide information on the epidemic situation in the area and issues of public concern.
Deputy Head of Ho Chi Minh City's Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control Pham Duc Hai announced that after ten-day implementation of Directive 18, inhabitants in Ho Chi Minh City are well adaptable to the new normal with more and more enterprises, business establishments, and traditional markets resuming operation creating employment and bringing income for people.
Additionally, 21 districts and Thu Duc City have been asked to declare free from the Covid-19 pandemic as of October 11 according to the Ministry of Health’s regulations.
However, Mr. Hai noticed that many dwellers in HCMC have not strictly followed the regulations on epidemic prevention and control. Besides, not many business establishments have been reopening and people in Ho Chi Minh City still face many difficulties in traveling to the provinces.
Presently, the city has still had Covid-19 infection cases. For instance, on October 8, the city reported approximately 2,215 Covid-19 people while it was 1,662 cases in the next day and yesterday, the number of Covid-19 infection cases was 1,067; accordingly, Mr. Hai stressed that the potential of Covid-19 re-occurrence and challenges are still existing and people should not relax their vigilance.
Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Lam said that up to now, 3,763,719 people have received the third support package. He expected that the city will complete its duty under the direction of the City People's Committee by October 15.
Workers of a company undergo tests
Regarding the mechanism of payment and treatment for Covid-19 for private hospitals, Chief of Office of the city Department of Health Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai said that the Department has a document guiding the financial mechanism for non-public medical facilities providing treatment of Covid-19.
Specifically, the state budget pays the costs of Covid-19 treatment such as bed fees, technical services, drugs, blood transfusions according to the guidance of the Ministry of Health.
Hospitals are not allowed to ask patients to pay extra money for treatment of Covid-19. Private medical facilities must not refuse Covid-19 patients but give them medical examination and treatment in accordance with regulations. Furthermore, hospitals are not allowed to ask patients to sign a commitment to pay for Covid-19 treatment costs. Extra charges for utilities outside the regulations will be collected but must be at the listed price.
According to Ms. Huynh Mai, field hospitals No. 13, No. 16 and No. 14 are being kept operating to continue providing treatment of Covid-19 patients.
In the respect of how the city health sector helps businesses to cut down fees on testing, Dr. Nguyen Hong Tam, Deputy Director of the HCMC Center for Disease Control, said that as per the regulation, some people in a family will undergo one test while others will undergo quick antigen tests. Healthcare workers will decide to undertake which types of tests to help businesses cut down on fees.
About children missing vaccine shots in the Expanded Immunization Program during the outbreak of Covid-19, Dr. Tam said that the Covid-19 pandemic is overstretching health systems because health workers are working round-the-clock to respond to the outbreak. Essential health services and vaccination services including the Program for Expanded Immunization are disrupted in Vietnam. Worse, newborn babies have not received tuberculosis and hepatitis B jabs.
He added that parents should take their children to medical facilities because the Covid-19 pandemic is under the control but parents should keep prevention and control regulations.
According to Deputy Director of the city Department of Transport Phan Cong Bang, the demand for employees is high when the city is entering the new normal state but people have not returned to the city yet. Workers in some southern neighboring localities such as Tay Ninh, Binh Duong, Long An, Dong Nai have returned to the city to work; but a few employees returned to other provinces for work.
Ho Chi Minh City has developed a plan to bring workers back to the city for work. It is expected that on October 13, pilot inter-provincial transportation will be put into practice to facilitate workers’ traveling to the southern metropolis.
Along with that, the city has also developed sets of safety criteria for many sectors. The transport industry has developed a set of criteria, suitable to the new situation; such regulations ensure the safety of epidemic prevention and control and create favorable conditions for people to travel in passenger coaches.
