In the battle against COVID-19, the Party and State’s policies, with the determination to fight the pandemic like fighting the enemy, have received enthusiastic response from the public.
The people share the responsibility of fighting the pandemic with the authorities by voluntarily taking part in COVID community groups and strictly comply with pandemic prevention guidelines in the spirit that each person is a soldier and each family a fortress against COVID-19 as per the Prime Minister’s call.
Each person is a soldier
Based on its experience in previous waves, Hanoi’s Dong Anh District upgraded its preventive measures to a three-layer quarantine model. Dong Anh Party Secretary Le Trung Kien said the first layer involved COVID-19 patients and their close contacts, whose were put into absolute isolation. The second layer was responsible for internal checks at villages and neighbourhoods. And the third layer kept control around villages and neighbourhoods.
To implement this three-layer model, the district established 1,600 checkpoints and any non-locals wishing to enter or exit residential areas must make health declarations and declare their destinations. Those who refused to comply with such measures will be turned down. It was a reason why Dong Anh successfully managed to quickly put out local outbreaks.
During the intense periods, the entire political system of Hai Phong was always in a ready state to respond to any emergencies in the quickest way possible. Just several hours after a message was announced, checkpoints would be set up at major routes into and out of the city.
At Cat Bi International Airport, the weather was scorching hot but dozens of young volunteers in tight protective suits, masks and gloves were still working hard to instruct arriving passengers to comply with pandemic prevention guidelines.
Young volunteers provided useful support for medical workers in instructing passengers to make health declarations and take samples for testing.
Effectiveness of community COVID groups
As soon as cases are detected, the relevant agencies will immediately work to take samples and put those in close contact with COVID-19 patients under quarantine. To fulfil this task, relying on health workers is not enough; it requires the participation of all the people, especially community COVID groups. In this fourth wave, localities hit by the virus was able to contain its spread thanks to such groups.
In Bac Giang, one of the most hard-hit provinces, over 10,640 community COVID groups were established with the participation of more than 37,400 people, in which Luc Nam District was one of the most successful localities in applying this model to the prevention of COVID-19.
Nguyen Thi Toan of Luc Nam District said: “The work of a COVID community group member requires meticulousness without complacency and negligence. It is tiring but I’m very happy since I can make a contribution to driving out the epidemic.”
In Viet Yen and Yen Dung Districts where there are many lodging houses for workers, there were COVID groups in which their heads were the landlords and their members were the enthusiastic workers staying there.
Voluntarily abiding by epidemic prevention and control requirements
Facing the complicated development of the pandemic, provincial and city authorities have urgently issued telegrams to ask people to practice social distancing and suspend some activities and services to prevent the spread of the disease. Most of the local people voluntarily and seriously obeyed, accepted the sacrifice of economic benefits and personal benefits in order to overcome the epidemic together with the Party and Government.
In Go Vap District (Ho Chi Minh City), due to inexperience, the organisation of the district was still confused in the early days, but after being directed by the municipal People's Committee and the departments, the implementation of social distancing has come into order.
According to Chairman of the Go Vap District People's Committee Nguyen Tri Dung, 12 checkpoints have been set up at the gateways to the district in order to minimise the movement of vehicles from other areas into the district, except for special cases for official reasons and cases of providing food and necessities.
He also shared that thanks to the cooperation of the people, Go Vap District has overcome the most difficult days. In the early days, the rate of infection in the district was still high, but by the 11th day, the rate had slowed. After two weeks of social distancing under Directive 16, the majority of new COVID-19 infections were being detected in isolation or blockade areas.
At the end of May 2021, a cluster of new cases of unidentified infection appeared in Hanoi's densely populated areas. Chairman of the Hanoi Municipal People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh issued an urgent telegram requesting suspending the operation of restaurants, on-site food services, hair salons, entertainment activities, exercise, and gather in public places.
Hanoi is a busy business area, now the city must temporarily stop selling on the spot, greatly affecting people's business, but everyone takes it seriously.
Nguyen Thu Hang, the owner of a cafe on Dang Tien Dong Street, said that only selling take-away products reduces the cafe's revenue by half compared to before, but the cafe strictly complies, not for their immediate benefit, but affected the city's epidemic prevention and control. The suspension of sports activities in public places also caused a lot of disturbance, but in general, people still strictly followed it.
When the epidemic occurs, the activities of gathering people, especially the wedding and funeral of families, are easy to become "super infectious" places.
Hanoi issued a regulation to stop organising unnecessary crowd-gathering activities, and at the same time, call people to organise wedding with small scale, civilised funerals, receiving the consent and voluntary compliance of the people.
The cultural beauties of the people of the capital in particular and the people of Vietnam in general have become a special factor in "participating" effectively in epidemic prevention and control, helping the country quickly gain control over the epidemic.
