Regarding pandemic prevention and control, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen said the Omicron variant has been recorded as dominant with sub-branches BA.2; BA.2.3, BA.2.3.2; while the sub-variant BA.5 has been recorded in many countries and there is a risk of it entering Vietnam, leading to a possible increase in COVID-19 cases in the near future.

In Vietnam, the number of new COVID-19 infections has dropped strongly but tended to increase slightly again in recent days in some provinces and cities.

The Ministry of Health said with the development of the pandemic, two situations can occur. Firstly, the virus strain continues to evolve, but the number of severe cases and deaths is kept low thanks to herd immunity. The epidemic is no longer serious or a new but less severe variant appears.

Secondly, the appearance of a new, more dangerous variant that is likely to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine or immunity, causing an increase in severe cases or deaths, and the risk of a strong outbreak, on a large scale, beyond the capacity of the country’s health system.

Therefore, he proposed continuing to carry out preventative measures including boosting vaccination with special attention to high-risk groups. Additionally, the health sector and local administrations should increase communication to raise people’s awareness of epidemic prevention.

Therefore, it is necessary to continue implementing measures to prevent and control the pandemic, strengthen vaccination, remind groups at risk of disease and continue to communicate so that people are always aware of prevention and control measures.

 Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asks the Ministry of Health to have solutions to speed up vaccination and tackle the shortage

of medicine and medical materials and equipment. Photo VGP

The Deputy Minister of Health also noted that the rate of vaccination is still slow, especially for the third dose, and the inoculation for the adult population and for children from 5 to under 12 years old. There is a backlog of many COVID-19 vaccines at the central and local levels, leading to the risk of expiration, which cannot be used if the vaccine is not received and adminstered soon.

Deputy Minister of Health Tuyen said the ministry will issue guidelines about the administration of the fourth dose before June 22.

The Ministry of Health suggested localities accelerate the administration of third and fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to urgently complete roll-out for people over 18 years old and give the basic dose for children aged 12-17 in the second quarter under the direction of the Government.

At the same time, localities were urged to review and propose doses of COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 18 years and older and report to the Ministry of Health for timely planning and allocation; plus, local administrations should actively deploy fourth doses for people aged 50 years and older, immunocompromised persons aged 18 years and older and people 18 years of age and older in a high-risk group for exposure to COVID-19.

At the same time, localities must actively review industrial parks, and tourist services in the area, giving priority to early vaccination for workers, who are at high risk of infection, and need to be directed to achieve a coverage rate of over 90 per cent in these target groups to ensure herd immunity in the near future.

Stressing that one of the measures to control the pandemic before and in the future is vaccination coverage, Deputy PM Dam proposed to study and consult experience from other countries in expanding the targeted population for vaccination of the third and fourth doses as well as lowering the age of children eligible for vaccination.

The conference held on June 20. Photo VGP

Noting difficulties in vaccination that the Ministry of Health and localities are focusing on handling, Deputy PM Dam asked the ministry to arrange all documents to provide detailed instructions on the injection of the booster dose for different target groups.

Local administrations were asked to report on the number of vaccines for specific target groups as well as strengthen the dissemination of information, especially about new strains that may appear. In addition, possible side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine must be made clear to mobilise people to be injected safely in the immediate and long term.

Regarding measures to prevent and control the V2K epidemic (vaccines, masks, disinfection), the Deputy Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Health to urgently review and specify localities where it is mandatory.

Regarding the recent shortage of medicines and medical materials and equipment at some medical establishments, Deputy Minister Tuyen said that in order to tackle difficulties, in the first six months of the year, the Ministry of Health issued circulation registration certificates for 963 drugs and announced a list of 6,251 drugs whose circulation registration certificates expire before June 30 and are valid until December 31 to partially remove difficulties for hospitals.

At the same time, the Ministry has issued 738 permits to import biological products for laboratory testing as well as 21,762 licences to import medical equipment and 22 circulation numbers of medical equipment for COVID-19 prevention and control in urgent cases.

He announced that the Ministry of Health has also released about 140,000 price declarations for medical equipment currently for infirmaries to look up and use as a basis for purchasing and selling medical equipment./.