Long An determines to prevent Covid-19 epidemic

Reporter discusses with Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee – Pham Tan Hoa about Long An's initiative in epidemic prevention and control in the current period

1. Reporter: Sir, before the complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Long An Steering Committee for the prevention and control of dangerous diseases on human has focused on instructing how to do well the work of prevention and fight against epidemics in the province in particular and contribute to the whole country to join hands to fight the epidemic?

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee – Pham Tan Hoa: The epidemic situation in the world in general and in Vietnam in the past few days has been very complicated, especially in the 4th outbreak of community infections in the last April 27.

Although the province has not been recorded any infected cases in the community, it focuses on preparing for the implementation of the province's tasks and solutions implemented in the spirit of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 prevention and control of the Provincial People's Committee and the Steering Committee for the prevention and control of dangerous diseases on human in the province.

The epidemic situation in the province can be very complicated, Long An is at risk of disease from 3 sides: From the border of the province adjacent to Cambodia; from the northern provinces when people go from the epidemic area to Long An province; and other cases of entry specialists and rescue flights, if they are not strictly and promptly controlled, there will be a risk of infection. Therefore, the province focuses on epidemic prevention and control including many integrated solutions.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Pham Tan Hoa inspects the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic in the border area

Firstly, the province strengthens the protection on the borderline, with more than 133 kilometers of borderline, the province has directed the forces to organize 61 posts with more than 600 officers and soldiers of border guard, police and military to coordinate day- and-night patrol and strictly control. In the last 3 days, Long An has not detected any cases of illegal entry, which is a good sign.

Secondly, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a plan to deploy concentrated isolation areas in the province, from level 1 to level 3 to prepare for possible bad situations at each level, following the plan of Military Zone 7 to serve 3,000 quarantine patients, level 4 is to serve 5,000 patients and level 5 is to serve 10,000 patients. In addition, the Provincial People's Committee also issued 20 decisions to establish 20 isolation areas with an isolation capacity of about 5,062 places to meet level 4 and by May 15, they will issue 13 more decisions to establish 13 more isolation areas with a total of 10,000 patients.

For treatment, Long An has established 1 field hospital in Ben Luc district and 4 grade-2 hospitals to treat positive cases if any. The province is focusing on deploying equipment and tools to improve the treatment capacity of hospitals, from field hospitals to grade-2 hospitals.

For testing capacity, currently the testing capacity of Long An General Hospital and Center for Disease Control is 400 samples per 24 hours; if determining the pooled samples (10 samples per 1 pooled sample) will be about 4,000 samples. However, the province is focusing on directing to continue investing in new testing machines with higher capacity, giving results sooner to meet the direction of the Ministry of Health, which is 1 million people, the testing capacity should be 1,000 samples/day.

At the same time, medical equipment, supplies, quick test kits, etc. have been directed by the provincial Department of Health and hospitals to focus on buying and hoarding to ensure epidemic prevention when there are infections in the community.

Long An province is focusing on directing to continue investing in new testing machines with higher capacity, giving results sooner

2. Reporter: Sir, how is propaganda done and how is people's awareness in complying with the current regulations on Covid-19 epidemic prevention?

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee – Pham Tan Hoa: Long An pays special attention to propaganda because when all people join hands with the State, the epidemic prevention and control will be effective. Over the past time, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations have increased propaganda and mobilized people to join hands to prevent the epidemic. Accordingly, people comply very well from wearing masks, keeping distance, disinfecting, etc. in accordance with the 5K message.

However, there are still some cases in some places where the situation of not complying well with wearing face masks in public places; Some business establishments under temporary suspension still operate stealthily. The province is strengthening propaganda and will strictly handle cases, especially those who do not wear face masks in public places and business establishments that do not strictly comply with regulations of the Provincial People's Committee and local authorities to ensure effective epidemic prevention.

3. Reporter: Regarding the direction of the Steering Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, with the content of temporarily suspending the operation of some non-essential services, could you please explain this policy specifically so that people can understand and accept to do?

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee – Pham Tan Hoa: Currently, the epidemic situation is very complicated, although Long An province has not had any infected cases in the community, the risk is always present and at any time, if the carelessness, lack of vigilance, lack of serious compliance, the risk of disease outbreaks. The goal of the Government and the province is to realize the dual goal of ensuring epidemic prevention and economic development. Long An also identifies epidemic prevention as the top priority because if there is only 1 infected case in the community, if social distancing is implemented, the situation of production and business activities in the province will be in extremely difficult level, can be called "paralyzing" if not managed well.

Over the past time, the province still identified two parallel goals and still focused on creating conditions for people to develop the economy but must prioritize epidemic prevention. The promulgation of documents and regulations of the province on suspending the activities, keeping distance, and so on are very cautious and evaluate the situation very carefully. From 12 o'clock on May 3, Long An has suspended activities such as karaoke, massage, discotheques, spas, etc. These are places with a very high risk of infection, especially after the celebration of April 30 and May 1 due to the large movement density of people. Therefore, the provincial People's Committee decided to temporarily suspend the operation.

Recently, the Provincial People's Committee continues to issue new documents on restrictions on mass gatherings in public places, but mainly in dining activities, restaurants and weddings at the same time with no more than 50 people. Thus, if people comply well and implement good distancing, production and business activities will still take place as usual.

The Provincial People's Committee recognizes and highly appreciates the consent of the people in implementing this policy. We hope people will share and support the policies of the Provincial People's Committee at present because if only one infected case in the community from the slightest negligence when people do not comply, all production and business activities will be paralyzed. People need to have a consensus, share a part of the short-term benefits to join hands with the province to realize the dual goals and especially the larger goal of epidemic prevention for long-term development; Don't let the lack of consciousness of an individual affect the whole community.

The Provincial People's Committee also directed the Tax sector to continue monitoring the current situation of distancing and suspending operations. If there is a great impact on people's production and business activities, they should gather and make timely recommendations to the Ministry of Finance.

Reporter: Thank you, Sir!./.

By Pham Ngan – Translated by Duc Tam

Source: https://baolongan.vn/long-an-quyet-tam-ngan-chan-dich-benh-covid-19-a114196.html