Society

What will Vietnam do to cope with the Omicron variant?

Published

1 year ago

December 2, 2021

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has asked local authorities to strengthen surveillance to discover Covid-19 cases and any abnormal signs of clusters as a new coronavirus variant called Omicron has emerged.

What will Vietnam do to cope with the Omicron variant?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on November 25, 2021 reported that the coronavirus variant it has named Omicron (B.1.1.529) was discovered in several African countries, such as South Africa and Botswana.

The first patient was a 30-year-old man in South Africa. He had fatigue, body aches with a minor headache, and itching, but no sore throat, cough or loss of taste.

According to scientists, the Omicron variant has 32 mutations in spike glycoprotein and is the most mutated of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses. It is predicted to spread faster than Delta.

Omicron cases have been discovered on several continents. Though epidemiologists think that it’s too late to impose travel restrictions to prevent Omicron from spreading globally, many countries have banned passengers from the southern part of Africa.

Dr Do Van Dung from the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy said it’s still too early to come to a conclusion about Omicron. He believes that viruses have a common evolutionary principle, and that new variants will be more contagious but less deadly. He explained that if viruses cause many deaths, there will be fewer hosts for them to infect. Their virulence then tends to be less deadly.

Keeping high alert

According to MOH, Vietnam has not found any Omicron cases. The ministry has instructed the healthcare system to strengthen surveillance to discover any abnormal signs of hotbeds.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has requested MOH to keep a close watch over the pandemic situation caused by Omicron and frequently contact WHO to get updates about this variant, so as to propose effective measures to cope with it.

MOH has asked institutes of hygiene and epidemiology and Pasteur Institute to carry out genetic sequencing of suspected new variants, especially from people returning from southern Africa.

The ministry has asked the Government to stop international flights from and to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique, and to stop granting entry permits to people from these countries.

Grassroots healthcare

According to Dung, vaccine boosters need to be given to people with top priority – older people, people with underlying health conditions, and medical workers at Covid-19 treatment centers.

To cope with Covid-19, protecting people at high risk in order to to reduce mortality rate is a top priority.

Pham Duc Hai, Deputy Head of the HCM City Steering Committee on Covid-19 Prevention and Control, said all nCoV viruses are transmitted through the respiratory tract. One of the most important things people must do is wear a protective face mask, and follow the government’s 5K (in Vietnamese: Khau trang – facemask, Khu khuan – disinfection, Khoang cach – distance, Khong tu tap – no gathering, Khai bao y te – health declaration) prevention principles.

Amid the risk of the new variant, Doctors Nguyen Thu Anh and Ngo Hoang Anh from Woolcock Vietnam said Vietnam should prepare thoroughly for all scenarios.

Regarding temporary measures, they said Vietnam should restrict the entry of people from countries with the variant, including Botswana, Eswatini, Lethoso, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, Belgium and Israel. New names will be added to the list if necessary. The measures should be applied until scientists have a full understanding of the new variant, including the possible influences on vaccine effects, or until the healthcare system is ready and prepared for a new outbreak.

Circulating variants should be screened by either sequencing genes or using random TaqPath of collected patient samples.

Vaccination coverage must be sped up and booster shots given to people at high risk, including people over 65 years old, medical workers, and people with underlying health conditions, especially those vaccinated with non-mRNA vaccines (there are two mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech approved in Vietnam).

Moreover, it’s necessary to consolidate the grassroots healthcare system and increase the capacity for PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) testing to be able to give results within 24 hours.

In theory, the combination of many mutants on spike protein could significantly reduce the effects of vaccines. Though scientists have not discovered the mechanism and the impact of the variant, Vietnam needs to be on high alert about the variant.

Vietnam works closely with WHO, US CDC to deal with Omicron threat

Vietnam is working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) in its response to new coronavirus variant Omicron, according to Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

The Ministry of Health on November 30 held a meeting on the threats of the very concerning variant with WHO Representative in Vietnam Kidong Park, CDC Southeast Asia Regional Director John MacArthur, and Director of US CDC Vietnam’s Global Health Security Programme Matthew Moore.

Long said as of November 30 morning, Vietnam has not recorded any case of COVID-19 with the new variant.

The ministry last week asked the government to halt flights to/from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mozambique, as well as suspend the issuance of visas for passengers coming from these countries.

The ministry has also asked to step up surveillance to promptly detect abnormal signs at COVID-19 outbreak clusters, and ordered the Pasteur institutes and the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology to perform genome sequencing on suspect cases with Omicron, especially ones with a history of travel to southern Africa.

The WHO and CDC representatives all stressed the four important steps in dealing with Omicron, including enhancing testing and surveillance to detect the cases, speeding up vaccination, boosting the capacity of the medical system – especially at the grassroots level – to make them able to deal with growing outbreaks, and stepping up communication on COVID-19 prevention and control measures and making public the genetic sequences of COVID-19 cases for further analysis by researchers and experts.

At the meeting, leaders of the Health Ministry together with the representatives of WHO, US CDC in Southeast Asia and US CDC in Vietnam agreed to be ready to share the results of the genetic sequencing of COVID-19 cases.

Long said Vietnam to date had administered 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and progress had been steady recently, especially with the rollout of vaccines for children aged 12-17 in more than 30 localities around the country.

He also urged the public to follow COVID-19 prevention and control measures but not to panic or become overly anxious in the face of the Omicron variant./. VNA

Ngoc Trang

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/en/feature/what-will-vietnam-do-to-cope-with-the-omicron-variant-797315.html

Society

FDI firms complain about dust from construction site of Vietnam’s Long Thanh airport project

Published

1 month ago

May 1, 2023

TienphongNews

Many foreign direct investment enterprises in the Loc An – Binh Son Industrial Park, which is located near the construction site of the big-ticket Long Thanh International Airport project in Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, have complained about dust resulting from the leveling of the site, saying that it has affected their products and workers’ health.

Representatives of over 200 FDI enterprises in Dong Nai on Friday attended a meeting with the provincial People’s Committee.

At the meeting, Doan Huong Giang, head of the administration and human resources division at Elite Long Thanh Co. Ltd., said “dust has caused a great impact on our products.”

“We expect the provincial authorities, departments, and agencies to come up with appropriate solutions to support Elite and other companies in preventing dust from affecting laborers’ health, product quality, and business activities,” Giang added.

Doan Huong Giang, head of the administration and human resources division at Elite Long Thanh Co. Ltd. in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam says dust from the construction site of the Long Thanh International Airport project has affected the company’s business activities. Photo: A Loc / Tien Phong

Many other enterprises shared the view.

Earlier, thousands of houses and a section of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway near the Long Thanh International Airport project were also reported to be covered with dust from the construction site.

Dust from the construction site of the Long Thanh International Airport project blankets adjacent residential areas. Photo: A Loc / Tien Phong

Dust from the construction site of the Long Thanh International Airport project blankets adjacent residential areas. Photo: A Loc / Tien Phong

Do Tat Binh, deputy general director of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the investor of the mammoth airport project, on Friday told Tien Phong (Youth) newspaper that the corporation had asked contractors to enhance the spray of water at the construction site to limit dust.

The ACV will next week dispatch fire trucks to the site to spray water, Binh said, adding that the corporation will join forces with the local authorities to support local residents in cushioning the impact of dust.

The construction site is large and the leveling workload is huge amid the windy and dry season.

Fifty vehicles spraying water every day at the construction site is just a temporary solution and can reduce part of the dust.

“The leveling is expected to be completed by the end of May, when the rainy season will come, and the volume of dust will reduce,” Binh said.

According to the ACV, 2,630 workers along with 1,860 pieces of machinery are working to build the foundation of the airport project.

The airport project, which requires an estimated investment of VND336.63 trillion (US$14.2 billion) and is located some 40 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, will cover around 5,000 hectares of land and was designed to have an annual capacity of 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo.

Once in place, it will be the largest airport in the nation.

At the conference, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, a representative of Terumo BCT Co. Ltd. in the Long Duc Industrial Park in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province, also complained about the deterioration of a road connecting National Highway 51 and the industrial park.

This is a key road on which most workers of the enterprises in the area have to travel every day. However, it has been deteriorated for a long time.

The four-kilometer road has many potholes, posing a high risk of traffic accidents for road users, especially at night.

Some enterprises reported the issue to district- and province-level agencies in 2020. However, the road was repaired without care and it remains in bad conditions.

Representatives of FDI firms also mentioned the insecurity and disorder and power cuts without advance notice.

Chairman of the Dong Nai People’s Committee Cao Tien Dung said the province took responsibility for accompanying enterprises to overcome difficulties.

Leaders of the Dong Nai authorities give investment certificates to FDI enterprises in the province. Photo: A Loc / Tien Phong

Leaders of the Dong Nai authorities give investment certificates to FDI enterprises. Photo: A Loc / Tien Phong

After the conference, the director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment must review enterprises’ complaints and report them to the provincial authorities to work out appropriate solutions, Dung said.

Regarding the road leading to the Long Duc Industrial Park, Dung asked Long Thanh District to quickly upgrade it.

The provincial Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Transport were assigned to ensure traffic safety for workers traveling on the road.

The Dong Nai chairman also requested the relevant agencies to review and promptly handle foreigners’ temporary residence registration and immigration applications.

Departments and agencies must review the procedure handling to meet enterprises’ demands and provide the greatest possible support for them.

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