Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control Pham Duc Hai
On December 9, the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control held a regular press conference under the chair of Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control Pham Duc Hai.
At the beginning of the press conference, Mr. Pham Duc Hai said that the Ministry of Health reported 15,311 additional Covid-19 cases in Vietnam on Thursday, along with 14,586 recoveries and 256 mortalities. Ho Chi Minh City recorded 1,453 of the newest cases with 1,200 hospitalizations and 76 deaths.
Head of Secondary Education Division under the Department of Education and Training Le Duy Tan said that from December 13, students in grades 9 and 12 in the city will go to school in person. Currently, Ho Chi Minh City has 285 junior high schools with more than 88,000 students in grade 9 and 202 senior high schools with more than 68,000 twelfth graders.
A large majority of parents support in-person schooling nearly a year after the coronavirus pandemic shut schools and forced students to learn remotely. Nearly 80 percent of parents in each grade agreed to send their children to school.
The Department of Education and Training recommended that parents of students and teachers ought to observe students during six-week pilot learning. Because, the children's learning process will go through four stages including at home, from home to school, studying at school, and from school to going home; therefore, parents and teachers must join hands to protect students.
Education sectors, especially secondary schools, must carefully study to give recommendations, guidelines and plans to ensure safe schooling. After students come to school, teachers will help them to brush up on knowledge they have learned online before the first-semester examination directly.
Chief of Office of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai
According to Mr. Mai, the health sector has recently transferred more than 12,000 unused packages of drug C including anti-viral drug Molnupiravir from medical facilities to places in need.
The Ministry of Health has distributed more than 25,000 doses of Molnupiravir to the southern largest city. Thus, Ho Chi Minh City has an abundance of drugs to treat Covid-19 which will be strictly managed in the face of the recent increase in Covid-19 patients. However, package C, an anti-viral drug will be widely distributed to those who were tested positive for SARS-CoV2, the virus causing Covid-19.
In addition, the Ministry of Health also provided 2,300 doses of Faipiravir in the same group, traditional medicines, and more than 30,000 doses of nutritional supplement to help protect people infected with Covid-19.
Ms. Mai said that anti-viral drugs are only used for right patients. Young and healthy people without symptoms or who have had two doses of the vaccine will not be prescribed antiretroviral drugs because improper use of the drug will lead to drug resistance and endanger the community.
For the sale of the drug Molnupiravir on the internet, a representative of the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City confirmed that this is a drug that has not been allowed to be circulated in the market. Thus, it is illegal to sell the drug online or to sell them on the market. The Department has cooperated with the city police to investigate and trace recorded sales and will report to the City Steering Committee to strictly handle all violations.
Regarding the campaign to vaccinate against Covid-19 with additional doses and booster doses in the city, Nguyen Hong Tam, deputy director in charge of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC), said that there has been a misunderstanding between the concept of supplemental injection and booster injection. The supplement is applied to immunocompromised people over 50 years old, with underlying diseases, and vulnerable groups.
Ho Chi Minh City will administer a booster dose of vaccine to people 18 years of age who are immunocompromised, organ transplant recipients, cancer and HIV patients who currently use or have used immunosuppressive drugs within six months.
These individuals get an additional primary dose 28 days after receiving their second shot meanwhile, people 18 years of age or older may get a booster shot 6 months after completing their vaccine primary series.
