Secretary Nguyen Van Nen congratulated innovative ideas of the localities of Vinh Loc A Commune and Vinh Loc B Commune in Binh Chanh District in the fight against Covid-19 as they were able to mobilize help from local benefactors and volunteers under the spirit of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’.
The two communes of Vinh Loc A and Vinh Loc B are quite crowded, with over 130,000 people each. 77 percent of dwellers there are temporary residents coming from other provinces. They live in crammed rented rooms, making the application of social distance rules extremely hard to achieve.
Adding to such a high population in a vast surface area, according to Secretary of Binh Chanh District Party Committee Tran Van Nam, the whole Binh Chanh District is now under a shortage of the medical staff.
At the moment, the district is launching the program ‘Residents in Binh Chanh District Help One Another to Overcome Difficulties’. Besides support packages distributed to the district by the municipal authorities, the localities have encouraged two capable households to take care of one poor family. Until now, the number of poor families being cared has reached nearly 20,000 with the support worth VND4 billion (approx. US$175,300). Another VND3 billion ($131,500) was mobilized among state officials here to help families under state preferential treatment policy.
Even with the active support from both the localities and community, there are still many cases in need of help. Only around 6,500 households out of over 24,000 families in Vinh Loc B Commune have received support packages. The quantity of needy households in Vinh Loc A Commune is similar to that in Vinh Loc B Commune, many of which have already obtained the social security package to live in 7 days.
Therefore, the City Party Chief asked that more must be done to not let anyone left in hunger. He was then informed that each commune has provided support hotlines of the Party Committee Secretary and Commune People’s Committee Chairman to all citizens. Both communes also try to respond timely to reports sent from the city’s 1022 hotline.
Regarding the vaccination task, Vinh Loc B Commune has provided one shot to 48,000 over 82,000 dwellers, following the motto of ‘the earliest available vaccine is the best’. Vinh Loc A Commune also vaccinated 65 percent of its population from 18 years old.
The Secretary reminded that HCMC is now focusing on minimizing dead cases of Covid-19 patients, so vulnerable groups like old people, individuals with underlying diseases, overweight people, and pregnant women must be in the top priority list of those being tested regularly and vaccinated.
Since the whole city is carrying out Covid-19 tests, the number of new cases is predicted to witness an upward trend. Secretary Nen requested that the localities must quickly and actively categorize these new F0s into those able to receive home-based care and those transported to hospitals. The first group must receive sufficient medication and medical consultation during their treatment.
Secretary Nen also paid visits to Covid-19 checkpoints of green safe zones in the two communes. Tran Vinh Tu, who is responsible for the checkpoint in Neighborhood No.8 of Hamlet 6B in Vinh Loc A Commune, reported that there are 20 households inside this green zone.
Each day, one member of the zone is in charge of guarding the entrance. Besides following the model of 2 capable families taking care of a poor one, people in need of medication or in emergency case have a phone number of the commune clinic to contact.
Director of the HCMC Department of Public Security Le Hong Nam in this visit directed that the police force in the district seriously perform their duty to timely discover those in need of help so that the local social security team can provide support.
The City Party Chief once again insisted on the important role of each individual in this tough fight of HCMC against Covid-19, saying that only with high awareness can we claim our final victory.
