The Ministry of Health on November 30 held a meeting on the threats of the very concerning variant with WHO Representative in Vietnam Kidong Park, CDC Southeast Asia Regional Director John MacArthur, and Director of US CDC Vietnam’s Global Health Security Programme Matthew Moore.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long.

Long said as of November 30 morning, Vietnam has not recorded any case of Covid-19 with the new variant.

The ministry last week asked the government to halt flights to/from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mozambique, as well as suspend the issuance of visas for passengers coming from these countries.

The ministry has also asked to step up surveillance to promptly detect abnormal signs at Covid-19 outbreak clusters, and ordered the Pasteur institutes and the National Institute for Hygiene and Epidemiology to perform genome sequencing on suspect cases with Omicron, especially ones with a history of travel to southern Africa.

The WHO and CDC representatives all stressed the four important steps in dealing with Omicron, including enhancing testing and surveillance to detect the cases, speeding up vaccination, boosting the capacity of the medical system – especially at the grassroots level – to make them able to deal with growing outbreaks, and stepping up communication on Covid-19 prevention and control measures and making public the genetic sequences of Covid-19 cases for further analysis by researchers and experts.

At the meeting, leaders of the Health Ministry together with the representatives of WHO, US CDC in Southeast Asia and US CDC in Vietnam agreed to be ready to share the results of the genetic sequencing of Covid-19 cases.

Long said Vietnam to date had administered 120 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and progress had been steady recently, especially with the rollout of vaccines for children aged 12-17 in more than 30 localities around the country.

He also urged the public to follow Covid-19 prevention and control measures but not to panic or become overly anxious in the face of the Omicron variant.

Vietnam records additional 13,063 Covid-19 cases

Vietnam logged 13,063 new Covid-19 cases, including 15 imported, in the past 24 hours to 4pm on November 27, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced.

Vietnam confirms 12,450 Covid-19 cases on November 25

Vietnam recorded 12,450 cases of Covid-19, including 21 imported cases, in 59 localities during 24 hours from 4pm November 24 to 4pm November 25, according to the Ministry of Health.

Memorial ceremony held for Covid-19 victims

The Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee in conjunction with the Party Committees of Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and localities nationwide held a ceremony on November 19 night to commemorate those who lost their lives to Covid-19.

Yen Dung urgently controls Covid-19 infections at Noi Hoang Industrial Cluster

(BGO) - Immediately after detecting six Covid-19 cases (F0s) related to a company at the Noi Hoang Industrial Cluster (IC), the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control in Yen Dung district, Bac Giang province has implemented many measures to zone off affected areas and control disease spread.

Hanoi begins Covid vaccination for children aged 15-17

Hanoi began vaccinating children aged 15-17 against Covid-19 Tuesday morning, the municipal health department announced.

Source: NDO/VNA