​​Receiving and working with the Delegation were Mr. Nguyen Van Loi - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Vo Van Minh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Committee; leaders of departments and branches.

Arranging vaccination for workers next time

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that the most urgent issue at present is to focus on controlling and preventing the pandemic from entering in association with implementing social distancing according to Directive 16. The Deputy Minister emphasized: "This is the time to do really drastic, control the pandemic as soon as possible."

The Deputy Minister suggested that the Department of Health advise the province to complete a specific pandemic prevention and control scenario, ensure the measures applied at this time, and forecast the pandemic situation and the risk of spreading in the community to respond promptly, not to be passive in all situations.

"The province needs a human resource plan for pandemic prevention and control. How many people are needed for what activities? Is there a shortage and where is it? Lack of doctors or technicians to take samples and do tests. It must be so specific and when Binh Duong finds it really lacking, we will mobilize students and lecturers from other training institutions of the Ministry or other localities to support. The Ministry of Health continues to send a Working Group in Binh Duong to provide professional support and guidance for the province to prevent and control the pandemic. In addition, the Ministry of Health is ready to support the province with all professional issues." - Deputy Minister affirmed. The Deputy Minister also noted that Binh Duong needs to set up and improve the efficiency of quarantine checkpoints between bordering areas, prevent outside sources of infection, have a plan to distribute essential goods to people, support people in difficult times so that no one is left behind.

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan speaks at the meeting

The Ministry of Health also suggested that the province should have a plan to purchase equipment and supplies for pandemic prevention and control, or mobilize donors to support with specific materials if the procurement takes a long time or encounters problems. For machinery, equipment and supplies for pandemic prevention and control based on the proposal of the province, the Ministry of Health will support the appropriate amount, according to the actual amount of the Ministry. In addition, the Ministry can also support 50,000 quick test kits for Binh Duong.

Currently, the province has 01 ICU Center (emergency and resuscitation) and is deploying 01 ICU center with 35 beds to be ready to treat serious patients, the Ministry of Health is expected to provide maximum support to the province to complete these 02 centers. The Medical Examination and Treatment Management Department is assigned to coordinate with units of the Ministry and Department of Health to review and support the completion of a complete ICU unit with a scale of 50-100 beds to ensure treatment for serious patients. In addition, the Ministry of Health also mobilized 01 ECMO system to support Binh Duong in deploying ICU unit.

The delegation proposed the province to build a backup plan for a large number of more than 4,000 beds in the coming time and have a plan to equip these locations.

According to the latest allocation of the Ministry of Health on July 12, 2021, in July 2021, about 240,000 doses of Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer vaccines are issued to Binh Duong. The province is requested to develop a specific vaccination plan to ensure the effectiveness of vaccination and organize vaccination for the right subjects in the spirit of Resolution no. 21 of the Government, in which taking into account the specifics of the local pandemic situation, as well as the requirement to ensure stable production of industrial parks, arranging vaccination for workers of a number of key industrial parks and factories.

Preparing resources to approach the new situation

From the 4^th pandemic wave to July 12, 2021, Binh Duong province recorded 1,628 cases in the community in 9/9 localities (including 48 companies inside and outside the industrial parks with more than 1,000 cases) and 02 deaths due to Covid-19, traced 9,598 F1, 31,692 F2, tested 61,492 samples (about 160,000 people); the majority of outbreaks appearing in the community have been controlled.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that pandemic prevention and control was placed on top by the province, and the whole political system was involved. The province has implemented many solutions to strictly apply Directive 16, strengthened handling of violations in pandemic prevention and control; completed community Covid-19 groups and Covid-19 safety groups in enterprises. In particular, directing enterprises to ensure the full implementation of production safety regulations, not allow for operation if it is not guaranteed. The Provincial Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control has issued a framework plan, and at the same time assigned the locality to proactively identify zones and areas for epidemiological investigation, take samples for testing according to CDC guidelines; assigned the locality to be active and flexible and not to entrust all the work for the Health branch, etc.

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Taking samples for testing for workers

In recent days, the number of cases in the province has increased rapidly in the community, Binh Duong has quickly tightened the social distancing between district and district, commune, ward and commune, ward, quarter and quarter, house and house, person and person. Deploying checkpoints for people from Ho Chi Minh city to Binh Duong. At the same time, enterprises are required to have a plan for workers in Ho Chi Minh City to work in Binh Duong to stay at the company or not to come to Binh Duong to work; self-implement rapid antigen test for regular employees according to regulations of the Ministry of Health. The Health branch is organizing to take samples for large-scale Covid-19 screening tests by Realtime-PCR method for 1 million people in the province. Over 85% of enterprises have assessed the level of pandemic safety according to the guidance of the Central Steering Committee.

Binh Duong has also promoted the application of information technology and pandemic prevention and control such as supporting the testing process and returning test results; vaccination and pandemic forecasting.

The province currently has 12 RT-PCR testing machines, with the capacity to test 8,000 samples per day (equivalent to 80,000 samples pooled 10 per day). To meet the pandemic prevention and control in the coming period, the province focuses on improving testing capacity to over 100,000 samples per day (equivalent to 1,000,000 people if samples are pooled); has established 450 mobile sampling teams (equivalent to 450 sampling tables, each table can collect 300 samples per day, maximum 135,000 samples per day) and mobilized the entire force of health staff, including private medical facilities, medical training schools, and Students at Hanoi Medical University to ensure rapid sampling over a large area.

With a maximum sampling capacity of 176,000 people per day (about every 30 minutes for results), it can be quickly tested for about 88,000 people per day. However, in reality, only about 30,000 per person per day can be obtained; therefore, only community screening samples have been taken in all high-risk areas for more than 150,000 people to date.

The province has 65 concentrated quarantine facilities, of which 03 are hotels; before the 4^th pandemic wave, the capacity was 4,000 beds; currently raised to 20,000 beds, and can be expanded to 30,000 beds when needed. Currently 9,598 F1 are under concentrated quarantine. With the situation of cases and the number of F1 continuing to increase, especially at companies and enterprises, Binh Duong is piloting to quarantine at home for low-risk F1 and quarantine at the company or factory if all conditions are met according to regulations. 

Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Loi speaks at the meeting

Speaking at the meeting, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Loi asked the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control to continue to supplement the requirements and instructions of the Ministry of Health, complete the response scenarios in the event of a large-scale outbreak. Right in the tomorrow morning, must begin to implement and schedule specific solutions and tasks to do.

Reported by Yen Nhi - Translated by Nguyen Trang