The committee gathered in Hanoi on March 11 under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, who is also the head of the Steering Committee.
Delegates at the meeting agreed that it is a must to strictly control people who enter Vietnam, both Vietnamese and foreigners. They are currently being forced to make mandatory medical declarations and will be strictly punished according to the law if they make fraudulent declarations.
Regarding foreigners, a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised that foreign citizens entering Vietnam must both comply with the provisions of international and domestic law, even being subjected to administrative and criminal sanction upon making incorrect medical declarations.
To prevent disease from spreading via the airway, delegates also agreed to require passengers to wear face masks during their flights, even until they enter Vietnam and undergo entry procedures. Airport authorities should provide free masks to them, they suggested.
The delegates also proposed solutions to strictly manage transit passengers in Vietnam, requiring international airports to arrange separate areas for them.
In addition, the Ministry of Transport recommended drivers of public transport vehicles, especially taxi drivers, to wear masks and require their passengers to do the same.
The committee proposed the Ministry of Health to provide specific guidance on the procedures for localities to carry out disinfection in families and areas where people infected with Covid-19 live, as well as at public places, tourist destinations and schools.
The Ministry of Health was also tasked with providing professional guidance and training for locales on how to divert and organise medical examination and treatment for common cases of fever.
Representatives from the relevant authorities at the meeting emphasised that the lesson learnt from the initial success in controlling the epidemic is to implement properly the work of reviewing, preventing and detecting suspicious cases for isolation. Therefore, it is necessary to organize centralised isolation for people coming in from Europe.
However, they also suggested only isolating those who are at risk of infection and visitors who have passed through an epidemic area or those who have had contact with the infected.
