Vietnam: State agencies and unit shall allow officials and public employees to work from home

In order to prevent and control the epidemic, the Prime Minister of Vietnam requests the Ministries, Ministerial Agencies, Governmental Agencies, The People’s Committees of provinces to fully concentrate on implementation of the epidemic prevention and control measures set out, especially those specified in the Prime Minister’s Directive No. 15/CT-TTg dated March 27, 2020; follow instructions of the National Steering Committee for Prevention and Control of Covid-19; and implement the following urgent measures:

- Carry out nationwide quarantine for 15 days from 12 am of April 01, 2020 between families, neighborhoods/villages, communes, districts, provinces. Workers in factories shall keep a safety distance, wear facemasks, and sanitize the workplace as prescribed.

- The people are advised to stay at home and only go outside when strictly necessary such as buying food or medicines, providing emergency treatment, going to work at facilities that are allowed to maintain operation to provide essential goods or services, and in other urgent circumstances; maintain a safety distance of 2 m during communication. Do not form groups of more than 2 people outside office buildings, schools, hospitals and in public places.

- The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Security, the People’s Committees of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City shall concentrate all effort and resources on elimination of the coronavirus clusters at Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi) and Buddha Bar & Grill (Ho Chi Minh City); find the people who have had contacts with confirmed cases or have visited the clusters; request people who have visited the clusters to make health declaration and contact health authorities for testing.

- The Ministry of Public Security shall cooperate with health authorities in compiling a list of people who are involved in activities of Truong Sinh Company, who will be monitored, quarantined and treated to eliminate all infection sources.

- State agencies and units shall apply information technology to enable officials and public employees to work from home, except for those whose presence at work is strictly necessary such as keeping guard, keeping watch, provision of essential goods and services, processing confidential documents and performance of other necessary tasks. Online meetings are recommended. The heads of these agencies and units shall be responsible for transmission of the disease among their personnel due to failure to comply with regulations on epidemic prevention and control in offices.

- The Ministry of Transport, the People’s Committees of provinces shall order shutdown of public transportation; restrict movement from one area to another; stop movement from affected areas to other areas except for performance of official tasks, provision of food and essential consumables, transport of workers and specialists of enterprises, transport of raw materials for production.

- The Ministry of Health shall request hospitals to strictly follow procedures for prevention of secondary transmission in hospitals; make health declaration mandatory to patients, their family and carers; allow only one carer for each patient; stop receiving visitors at the hospitals; impose strict rules for patient admission. Do not let the operation of the entire hospital be affected by an infected person.

- Temporarily close the primary and secondary border checkpoints for people along the border with Laos and Cambodia from 12 am of April 01, 2020. Strictly control the entry through international border checkpoints on road; all inbound travelers from Laos and Cambodia shall be quarantined for 14 days.

- The Ministry of Finance shall instruct the General Department of Customs to resolve difficulties in export of cloth facemasks; request insurers not to introduce and provide insurance against Covid-19.

- etc.

View all contents of the Prime Minister’s Directive HERE.

Nguyen Trinh

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