Draft measures to prevent COVID-19 disease in Vietnam: Why is COVID-19 not considered an endemic disease in Vietnam?
What is the concept of "endemic disease" in Vietnam?
According to the instructions in subsection a, Section 2, Proposal issued together with Official Letter 3168/BYT-DP in 2022 on seeking opinions on the draft proposal on measures to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam in the new situation issued by the Ministry of Health. The promulgated health regulations have specified the concept of endemic diseases as follows:
- According to national and international epidemiological documents, especially those of WHO and USCDC4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, an "endemic" disease is a steady occurrence. identification of a disease or pathogen in a given geographical area or population group; or directed at a common incidence of an epidemic in a given area or population.
- According to Geraldine L.Glimcher, expert in Immunology and Infectious Diseases: “COVID-19 will become endemic which means that the pandemic will not end with the virus disappearing, instead when enough numbers are reached. People who are protected by immunity from vaccination or natural infection have less transmission, and fewer hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19 even if the virus continues to circulate.”
- Thus, a disease is considered circulating when it has some specific criteria as follows: (1) There is a frequent presence of the causative agent; (2) Existence of susceptible populations and reservoirs of pathogens; (3) Epidemics occur in a specific population or population in a certain area; (4) The incidence is stable and predictable.
- For criterion number 4, most countries in the world are in an unstable state of the number of cases and deaths, with an erratic increase and decrease when new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus appear. (like South Africa, the US, after 2 months of the epidemic, the trend of decreasing has increased again from the beginning of May 2022 to now due to the circulation of variants BA.4, BA.5 and has not tended to slow down), SARS-CoV-2 virus may continue to appear new variants; At the same time, acquired immunity (due to vaccines and diseases) has not been stable for a long time and decreases over time. Therefore, after a large enough time, the epidemic can break out again at any time. More time is needed to monitor and evaluate the stability as well as the change of the pathogen.
Draft measures to prevent COVID-19 disease in Vietnam: Why is COVID-19 not considered an endemic disease in Vietnam?
Is COVID-19 disease in some countries around the world considered endemic?
In subsection b, Section 2, Proposal issued together with Official Dispatch 3168/BYT-DP 2022 on seeking opinions on the draft Proposal on measures to prevent COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam in the new situation issued by the Ministry of Health has raised about whether COVID-19 disease in some countries around the world is considered an endemic disease, not specifically that:
- Through discussion with WHO on May 19, 2022, no country in the world has reported to WHO about officially declaring COVID-19 as an endemic disease in their country; However, some Southeast Asian countries have introduced criteria to consider COVID-19 as endemic (Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, Australia) on the basis of indicators such as mortality rate low mortality, reduced rates of serious illness requiring hospitalization and high vaccine coverage at many age groups, especially in at-risk populations.
- Indonesia stipulates that COVID-19 is an endemic disease when the bed occupancy rate must be below 5% and the positive rate must be less than 1% of the population; Thailand is expected from July 1, 2022 to consider COVID-19 as an endemic disease provided that the mortality rate does not exceed 0.1% (currently this rate is close to 0.2%), which will Remove the requirement for testing, remove the requirement to wear a mask, except for those who are infected.
- Many European countries and some Asian countries have also gradually eased many measures in recent years on the basis of a high rate of COVID-19 vaccine coverage (over 80%) and the number of new cases, Mortality has decreased in recent times. Many countries have relaxed COVID-19 prevention measures as for other common diseases (not required to isolate for F0, F1, or not to wear a mask when going out in public, in closed rooms). , ... (England, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland).
- There are 118/208 countries and territories lifting travel restrictions due to COVID-19. There are 156 countries and territories (hereinafter abbreviated as countries) open their borders to all citizens from all countries. There are 28/40 countries in 5 continents that do not require masks. 11/40 countries on 5 continents (Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Lativa, Thailand, Laos, Oman, Turkey, Belize, Guatemala) still require people to keep personal distance from 1 up to 2 meters.
Some assessments about COVID-19 disease in the world and in Vietnam?
For a number of assessments on the COVID 19 epidemic in Vietnam, in subsection c, Section 2, Proposal issued together with Official Dispatch 3168/BYT-DP in 2022 on seeking opinions on the draft Proposal for epidemic prevention and control measures. COVID-19 in the new situation issued by the Ministry of Health specifically states as follows:
- Currently, on a global scale, the number of new cases and deaths is decreasing but unevenly across countries, some countries after a period of decline have increased again, some countries only Maintaining the "Zero COVID-19" policy, there were outbreaks of outbreaks in the community such as China, North Korea...
- WHO believes that the COVID-19 epidemic will not disappear completely, it may soon become an endemic disease. On March 31, 2022, the World Health Organization released a plan to end the state of emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, with the basic condition being the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. reaching over 70% of the global population and keeping the number of new cases and deaths from COVID-19 under control. WHO also encourages countries to make the transition from pandemic prevention to sustainable management.
- The SARS-CoV-2 virus constantly mutates and records new variants such as Alpha, Delta, Omicron, XE (a recombinant variant between Omicron's BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants); even in variants there are continuously sub-variants, for example, the Omicron variant has recorded sub-variants BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, BA.5 and other variables. this organism can evade immunity, causing reinfection; Therefore, the incidence in susceptible populations is difficult to determine and is not stable.
- In the country, the number of cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection has been recorded in all provinces and cities, but the incidence of COVID-19 is not stable and there is a huge difference between localities. In the coming time, the number of infections may continue to follow the downward trend or increase again when meeting the conditions of agents (appearance of dangerous new variants), policies (changes in prevention and control measures). Translate); susceptible subjects can be quite large; Worrying new variations and sub-variants continue to appear at a fairly rapid rate in the world; The epidemic situation in some countries is still very complicated, the post-COVID-19 impact has not been fully studied; Moreover, the immunity caused by vaccination against diseases and acquired immunity is not sustainable, so it is difficult to predict the epidemic.
- In Vietnam, with the efforts of the entire political system and the active participation of the people, we have also achieved a high COVID-19 vaccine coverage rate of nearly 80% of the population fully vaccinated. vaccinations or more, of which the age group 18 and older has reached about 100%, the group 12 to under 18 years old has reached over 96.7%, the group 5 to under 12 years old has been vaccinated in April and strives to basically Completed in June 2022.
- The number of new cases and deaths due to COVID-19 in Vietnam has also tended to decrease relatively steadily from the end of March until now, in recent days, it has only recorded less than 1,000 cases/day (compared to the peak of the epidemic). about over 170,000 cases/day), the number of deaths also decreased significantly, some recent days recorded less than 5 cases/day.
Thus, based on the above information, Vietnam basically meets the necessary conditions to gradually shift disease prevention measures from pandemic prevention to sustainable management.
However, we must always be alert to new variants of the virus and require governments at all levels and sectors to continue to pay more attention to investing in the health system to be ready to respond to the outbreak. develop new, more dangerous variants that have the potential to reduce vaccine effectiveness or immunity, cause severe cases or increase deaths, epidemics have the risk of large-scale outbreaks, exceeding the capacity of health systems .
Here is some of the information we provide to you. Best regards!
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