At the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
On the morning of January 24, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Head of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, wished New Year and presented gifts to doctors and medical staff at the Department of Health in HCMC.
At the meeting, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the city Department of Health reported that the city has put the pandemic under control with a sharp decrease of new cases, severe cases, and deaths.
Ho Chi Minh City has been in the green zone for the third consecutive week with the number of new cases continuing to fall below 300 a day while the number of deaths dropped from 123 cases a day on October 2 to six daily cases on January 23, of which 2 cases have been transferred from neighboring provinces.
Following the direction of the Prime Minister, according to Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong, all medical staff in Ho Chi Minh City will continue to perform two important tasks including effective prevention of the Covid 19 epidemic, and at the same time continuity of health care work for all residents with the best possible quality of medical examination and treatment of medical facilities.
To do that, Dr. Thuong proposed specific mechanisms and policies on strengthening and improving the capacity of the grassroots health care, mechanism of payment for Covid-19 medical examination, and treatment costs for private healthcare providers in 2021 to the Prime Minister.
In addition, he added that the Government should soon issue a centralized procurement mechanism to reduce pressure on medical facilities.
PM Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
Praising the achievements of Ho Chi Minh City in 2021, especially in the prevention of the fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, PM Chinh affirmed that Ho Chi Minh City has made a very important contribution to the epidemic prevention and control of the country. He also expressed his condolence to bereaved families whose relatives died of Covid-19 during the outbreaks.
The Prime Minister said that a series of drastic measures have been implemented in the prevention and control of the epidemic. The government decided to dispatch soldiers, police officers, and medical staff to Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces, to set up hundreds of mobile medical stations in a short time. These forces have provided treatment to people infected with Covid-19, providing medication and instructions for those receiving home treatment.
Ho Chi Minh City, the southern provinces of Binh Duong, Long An, Dong Nai had been prioritized for vaccine allocation. Ho Chi Minh City is the first locality to deploy the vaccination campaign, helping Vietnam to be one of six countries with the highest vaccination coverage in the world.
In the difficult context, many unprecedented policies to support people were implemented drastically during the social distancing mandate to fight the epidemic. The country has spent nearly VND71,500 billion to support 742,000 laborers and distributed over 158,000 tons of rice to support people in difficulty.
Analyzing the achievements of socio-economic development, the Prime Minister stated that, with the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and active participation of people from all walks of life, the business community, the Southeast Asian country was determined to gain several outstanding achievements in many fields.
PM Pham Minh Chinh gives gifts to oustandign medical workers in Covid-19 prevention and control (Photo: SGGP)
In 2022, difficulties and challenges will be more than opportunities and advantages; worse, the coronavirus epidemics can still develop complicatedly with new strains; therefore, the Prime Minister asked Ho Chi Minh City not to relax vigilance but effectively implement the overall program of epidemic prevention in 2022-2023 and take heed of socio-economic recovery and development.
Additionally, the Prime Minister requested to speed up the progress of vaccination for the group of high-risk people and for children 12-17 years old to reopen schools after the Tet holidays (the Lunar New Year).
Finally, along with that, city authorities should pay attention to administrative reform, digital transformation in the health sector, prevention of corruption and negativity.
Last but not least, the city should continue to invest in improving the capacity of the health system, strengthen grassroots health care, preventive medicine, strengthen the capacity of the Center for Disease Control in HCMC.
He reminded taking heed of all medical staff’s living conditions.
