Hanoi (VNA) – Although Vietnam has stopped COVID-19 testing at border gates and shown strong performance in controlling the pandemic, experts held that the cꩲountry should still stay vigilant against COVID-19 as the pandemic situation has been tense in many countries with the appearance of many new sub-variants.

Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has been well controlled in Vietnam. However, during the New Year Festival when the travelling demands of people surge, experts advise people to enhance the application of measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

Flexible pandemic prevention measures

On January 8, China officially announced the lowering of COVID-19 management level from level Class A to Class B. Accordingly, a series of pandemic responding measures will be applied in the new period, marking the “cautious reopening” of the country after three years of closure due to the pandemic. Compulsory quarantine will be exempted for people entering China, while Chinese people will be allowed to go abroad. Associate Prof. Tran Dac Phu, former Director of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine and senior advisor of the Public Health Emergency Operation Centre (PHEOC), said that as COVID-19 is being well controlled in Vietnam, the risk of pandemic recurrence inside the country is low when China reopens its door. Domestic pandemic prevention activities will not be affected even when many COVID-19 patients enter the country, he stressed. To date, Vietnam has injected more than 265.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to local residents, with the third shots for nearly 80% of adults. Experts said that regular pandemic supervision is needed to assess the pandemic situation basing on the number of daily infections and fatality rate as well as the appearance of new variants. In reality, Vietnam has stopped the testing at border gates and controlled the pandemic well. However, the pandemic has been still developing complicatedly in many countries with the appearance of many new variants. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has yet to announce the removal of a public health emergency due to COVID-19. “We need to keep a close watch on all the indicators to consider reactivating the pandemic responding system. Therefore, the most important thing right now is to properly assess the pandemic outbreak risk,” Phu said.

Greater attention to preventive measures

According to WHO Representative in Vietnam Dr. Angela Pratt, Vietnam has entered a period of “sustainable management” of COVID-19 and shown strong performance in balancing socio-economic development and the protection of public health and the medical system. Although COVID-19 still exists in Vietnam, there is no signs that hospitals and medical service system is overloaded due to the pandemic, Pratt said. Amid the situation, the Ministry of Health has directed relevant agencies to increase supervision at border gates, medical facilities and the community, while increasing the gene decoding process to identify circulating SARS-CoV-2 sub-variants. Associate Prof. Tran Dac Phu advised people to pay great attention to preventive measures during the Lunar New Year Festival and the festive season, including wearing masks, washing hands regularly, and avoid direct contact with people suspected of contracting COVID-19. Those who show infection signs should also apply measures to prevent the spreading of the virus, he said./. Phu also underlined that vaccination is currently the most effective measure to prevent COVID-19./.