Local 19 sheet metal workers

Health authority found the wife of a suspected Covid-19 case working at the Dong Nai-based firm with 27,000 employees. The worker, who came in close contact with the suspected Covid-19 case, had her sample taken and is awaiting results. The company has suspended 18,403 workers starting Saturday morning to disinfect the entire factory, according to Le Nhat Truong, chairman of the labor union of Pou Sung Vietnam. It is also tracing those who traveled in the same vehicle carrying the Covid-19 linkage worker. The firm employs 300 vehicles to pick up over 10,000 staff in remote areas across the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Thuan. Dong Nai Province has 31 industrial zones and one high-tech zone, with 1,400 enterprises employing more than 620,000 workers. The province found two Covid-19 cases Saturday, ending its 45-day streak without new Covid-19 cases. Dong Nai has so far recorded three confirmed Covid-19 case since the fourth coronavirus wave hit on April 27. …

[Read more...] about Taiwanese footwear maker suspends 18,000 workers over Covid-19 linkage

Local experts said that it’s better for the Government to buy Covid-19 vaccine at higher prices rather than coping with the outbreak. Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City on June 19 started vaccinating on the large scale following the rising infections over the last few days while Hanoi eyes relaxing Covid-19 restrictions. Post-vaccination app enables recipients to monitor their health status. Photo: MoH Roughly 836,000 doses will be administered in the city’s biggest vaccination campaign. Today, the inoculation begins with workers in the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Thu Duc City. “To carry out this vaccination campaign, we have mobilized local healthcare force and central agencies located in the city, including military hospitals, police hospitals, and military preventive medicine institutes,” according to Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son. Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh said that the vaccine supply meets only part of the city’s 2.3 million people in priority groups, so top priority will be given to workers in industrial parks, export processing zones, police officers and military personnel. The city’s health workers were vaccinated in the previous inoculation programs. Local experts at the workshop held by Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) on June 19 said that the vaccination becomes essential for Vietnam in pursuing the twin goals of containing the pandemic and developing the economy. Dr. Vu Thanh Tu Anh, Director of Research at Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, said “With rising infections caused in the fresh outbreak, Vietnam needs to change its anti-pandemic strategy from defense to attack with the vaccination. Speeding up the vaccine import becomes the urgent issue.” Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Public Policy Program at FUV, said the Government needs to get ready in finance for the vaccine purchase. “Vietnam will get vaccine soon if the country’s willing to negotiate at high price at this …

[Read more...] about JUNE 19: HCM City starts large-scale vaccination

With the highly contagious UK and Indian variants of COVID-19 detected in Vietnam, testing must be considered one of the most important parts of the fight against the pandemic, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said. Medical workers prepare to take samples for COVID-19 testing in Da Nang. The minister was speaking at the meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Monday morning. The country reported 125 locally acquired infections yesterday, the highest daily spike since the fourth wave began on April 27 and since the pandemic began earlier last year. The Indian variant, present in various clusters in the current outbreaks, was more transmissible and can spread quickly through the air, especially in closed spaces, Long said, adding that it was necessary to prepare for a worse scenario. Long said Vietnam’s testing capacity now was 1.7 times higher than during last year’s Da Nang outbreak, or the country's second wave. The health ministry agreed to deploy antigen tests in crowded public places, especially in factories and accommodation sites, so COVID-19 screening can be done regularly and yield faster results. Likewise, health authorities will also use antigen testing to screen arrivals in centralised quarantine so different measures can be put in place timely. Minister Long also asked that hospitals with more than 300 beds set up a real-time-PCR laboratory to confirm suspected COVID-19 cases and avoid having to send samples elsewhere. The health ministry has proposed a plan to respond to the scenario in which Vietnam reports up to 50,000 infections but the national steering committee decided that at this time, the country must prepare to deal with a scenario of 30,000 infections. At present, Vietnam can deal with 10,000 infections properly, according to the committee. Experts attending the meeting agreed that the pandemic resurgence was developing in a complex manner with highly contagious …

[Read more...] about Testing key to defeating fourth wave of COVID-19: Health Minister