As part of the plan, the municipal authorities have tightened supervision of travelers at airports and seaports to prevent cases of importing the new variant of Omicron; strengthened tracing and identifying the contacts of all suspected people in residential areas and workplaces; and asked people who entered the city within 28 days and infected with Covid-19 and those got reinfected with Covid-19 to get tested for variant of the virus.
In addition, the city is constantly tracking the latest updates of the Covid-19 Omicron variant around the world to make an accurate risk assessment of the virus and set up a new pandemic response strategy.
Administering a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine that recommended for people who are fully vaccinated and might not have had a strong enough immune response; developing the pandemic surveillance system at all levels; and continuously carrying out the operation of Covid-19 treatment facilities and field hospitals, mobile healthcare stations and community-based Covid-19 patient care teams are also parts of the city’s response plan.
The People’s Committee of the city has asked the municipal Department of Health and relevant units to check and prevent importation of infections at entry points under the guidance of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control; and coordinate with the HCMC High Command and the Department of Tourism to implement the mandatory quarantine requirements for arrivals; cooperate with the HCMC Pasteur Institute and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU)- a large-scale clinical and public health research unit based in Vietnam’s HCMC to take genetic sequencing to detect the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile the Police Department, the High Command and the Border Guard High Command, the Department of Information and Communications, the Youth Union of HCMC, the Steering Committees for Covid-19 Prevention and Control of district, processing zones and industrial parks, State agencies and enterprises have to get ready to the Omicron variant.
