Vietnam prepares to live safely with Covid

Vietnam is preparing to safely adapt to life amid the pandemic once its vaccination goal is achieved, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Sunday.

Chinh said he has requested relevant agencies to devise plans for economic recovery and for society to safely adapt to Covid-19, among other adaptations regarding traffic, travel, production and services.

Previously on August 29, at a meeting with local authorities in 20 provinces and localities undergoing social distancing orders, Chinh said the battle with the coronavirus is long and there needs to be a plan to « live with it. »

On September 1, Chinh said lockdowns cannot go on forever, and the goal should be adapting to the pandemic and reducing death rates through vaccination and drugs.

In the Sunday meeting with the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, Chinh called for the people to sympathize and to contribute efforts to fight the pandemic.

« We understand the difficulties that businesses and the people face, so we could strive to bring the country back into a new normal, » he said.

Current coronavirus control measures have been derived from lessons over the past two years, the result of feedbacks from the people, scientists and other countries. But the goal of vanquishing the virus has not been achieved due to challenges in implementing such measures, Chinh said.

Localities undergoing social distancing should continue to perform mass Covid-19 testing for all their populations so that by mid-September, people in high-risk areas could be tested every two to three days, and those in other areas be tested at least once.

So far, Vietnam has vaccinated 21.4 million people with at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot. Over 3.1 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The country aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its 96 million population by next year.

The government also aims to put the coronavirus situation under control by September 15.

By Viet Tuan – VnExpress.net – September 6, 2021