Guidelines for epidemic prevention and control during Tet and festive seasons in Vietnam

Guidelines for epidemic prevention and control during Tet and festive seasons in Vietnam (Internet image)

The Department of Preventive Medicine issued Official Dispatch 1473/DP-DT dated December 30, 2022 on strengthening epidemic prevention and control during Tet and festival seasons.

Thus, the guidelines for epidemic prevention during Tet and festive seasons are as follows:

Information from the infectious disease surveillance system in Vietnam, the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic in the world is still complicated with the appearance of new variants;

At the same time, other dangerous and emerging infectious diseases continue to be recorded in many countries such as:
Ebola in Uganda, polio (wild strain) in Africa and the Mediterranean region, cholera in Sudan, monkeypox in Europe and the United States.

Facing the complicated situation of infectious diseases in the world, in order to proactively detect early and promptly prevent suspected cases of infectious diseases through border gates, outbreaks of epidemics in the community;

In implementation of Directive 06/CT-BYT on strengthening medical work to ensure the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit in 2023, the Department of Preventive Medicine suggested that the Institutes of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute, Bach Mai Hospital,
The Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Departments of Health of the provinces/cities shall direct and implement the following contents:

1. Responsibilities of the Department of Health in epidemic prevention and control during Tet and festive seasons in Vietnam

The Department of Health directs:

- Continue to strictly enforce the border medical quarantine activities specified in Decree 89/2018/ND-CP guiding the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases.

- Prepare human resources, facilities, equipment, vehicles, and chemicals to ensure good health quarantine activities and update the inter-sectoral contingency plan in a timely manner when recording a suspected case of an infectious disease at the border gate area. Prepare plans to handle possible epidemic situations, not to be passive or embarrassed.

- Update information on dangerous and emerging infectious diseases that have recently been recorded and are at risk of entering our country on a regular and timely basis in order to actively apply surveillance measures, coordinate prevention at the border gate, or coordinate with other medical units to handle the outbreak to prevent outbreaks in the community.

- Strengthen surveillance of COVID-19 to early detect outbreaks and clusters of cases with unusual developments and characteristics (number of cases, severe course or hospitalization, unusual increase in mortality over time, geographical area, specific subjects...), on that basis, proactively and in collaboration with the Institutes of Hygiene and Epidemiology/Pasteur, hospitals have the ability to identify new variants of COVID-19 by taking surveillance samples, researching and discovering new variants/variants.

- Continue to promote COVID-19 vaccination for groups of subjects in accordance with Ministry of Health guidance to ensure compliance with the plan laid out at the request of the government, particularly for groups aged 5 to under 18 years old.

- Review and update infectious disease prevention communication messages at border crossings and in the community to help people understand, prevent, and cooperate with medical personnel in accordance with the epidemic situation.

- Plan, assign staff, and organize full epidemic prevention and control during Tet.

- Continue to collect and report infectious disease information as directed.

3. Responsibilities of the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the Pasteur Institute, and hospitals in epidemic prevention during the Tet and festive seasons in Vietnam

- Collaborate closely with localities to actively monitor new SARS-CoV-2 virus variants in Vietnam; collect patient samples from provinces and cities for genetic sequencing testing to identify new variants.

- Immediately report to the Ministry of Health of Vietnam (Department of Preventive Medicine) and notify the Department of Health of the provinces and cities of cases of new variants to promptly implement epidemic prevention measures.
(if noted).

More details can be found in Vietnam's Official Dispatch1473/DP-DT dated December 30, 2022.

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