Vietnam calls for nation to go into self-isolation for 15 days

Vietnam called on citizens to go into self-isolation for 15 days

Accordingly, the government urges families to stay at home, with movement between communes, districts, and provinces heavily limited. People should only go out if really necessary, including going to work at factories manufacturing essential goods, to buy food and medical supplies, and to use face masks whenever outside. Residents will have to keep at least 2 metres of distance from each other.

At manufacturing facilities and factories, staff members and employees will have to maintain a safe distance, wear face masks at all times and the entire facilities will have to be disinfected regularly.

At state offices, employees will be allowed to work online from home. Companies will increase to organise online meetings. The leaders of firms will have to take responsibility and will be punished in case their staff are infected by the pandemic due to a failure to comply with the government’s requirements.

The prime minister asked the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Securities, as well as the People’s Committees of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to all resources, including machinery, equipment, and human resources, to deal with pockets of outbreak such as Bach Mai hospital and Buddha bar, while simultaneously preventing the spread of the pandemic. These authorities will also have to increase their call on people who were present at these pockets of outbreak to submit a health declaration and have their health checked.

The Ministry of Transport and People’s Committees of cities and provinces will suspend public transport to limit the movement of people between places, especially between places where the pandemic has been detected and safe places, excluding vehicle transport of food, workers, and essential goods.

Furthermore, Vietnam will close both main and sub-border gates from 0:00 AM on April 1, 2020 to Laos and Cambodia. All people entering Vietnam who previously passed through these two countries will be isolated at a government-supervised facility for 14 days.

The Ministry of Health has bought 200,000 rapid coronavirus test kits from South Korea to carry out mass testing as the COVID-19 fight enters a crucial stage.

These rapid test kits will be used to test 37,000 people in centralised quarantine areas, tens of thousands of people in home quarantine, and those who visited Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi from March 12 onwards.

Localities can either conduct real-time RT-PCR tests, a technique that combines the reverse transcription of RNA into DNA and the amplification of specific DNA targets using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or they can wait for quick test kits.

The Ministry of Health also noted that rapid test kits should only be used seven days after exposure to the pathogen. Before three days, the sensitivity and specificity are very low.