Decision No. 02/2016/QD-TTg dated January 28, 2016 of the Prime Minister on conditions for announcement of epidemics and their termination

DECISION

ON CONDITIONS FOR ANNOUNCEMENT OF EPIDEMICS AND THEIR TERMINATION

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases dated November 21, 2007;

At the proposal of the Minister of Health,

The Prime Minister hereby promulgates the Decision on conditions for announcement of epidemics and their termination.

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Decision provides conditions and orders for announcement of epidemics and their termination.

Article 2. Conditions for epidemic announcement

1. For epidemic of group A: Having at least one person is diagnosed.

2. For epidemic of groups B and C:

a) A commune, ward and township (hereinafter referred to as “commune”) is considered having epidemic when the number of infected persons exceeding the average number of infected persons of the month in the same period of the last 3 years;

b) A district, town and city of a province (hereinafter referred to as “district”) is considered having epidemic if there are 02 infected communes or more;

c) A province and centrally run city (hereinafter referred to as “province”) is considered having epidemic if there are 02 infected districts or more.

Article 3. Orders for announcement of epidemics of group A

1. Immediately after receiving information about suspected person of group-A epidemic, agency assigned by the Ministry of Health shall appoint the investigation and verification (hereinafter referred to as “epidemic verifying agency”).

2. Within 12 hours, from the time of defining the suspected person of group-A epidemic, the epidemic verifying agency shall be responsible for notifying the Department of Health of province where the epidemic is breaking and concurrently report the Ministry of Health.

3. Within 12 hours, from the time of receiving notification of the epidemic verifying agency, the Department of Health of province where the epidemic is breaking shall be responsible for reporting the Chairperson of the provincial People’s Committee.

4. Within 12 hours, from the time of receiving report of the Department of Health of province where the epidemic is breaking, the Chairperson of the People’s Committee of such province shall be responsible for requesting the Ministry of Health for announcement of epidemic.

5. The Minister of Health shall:

a) To announce epidemic within 24 hours after receiving the request of the Chairperson of the provincial People’s Committee;

b) To notify infected cases of group-A epidemic within 24 hours after receiving report of the epidemic verifying agency if the persons entering into Vietnam is defined having epidemic of group A;

c) To request the Prime Minister to announce epidemic if the epidemic is fast spreading to other provinces, seriously affecting to people’s lives and health.

Article 4. Orders for announcement of epidemics of groups B and C

1. Immediately after receiving information that the patient is diagnosed with an infectious disease, the Department of Health at the place where an infectious person resides during the incubation period as prescribed in the Appendix attached to this Decision shall organize to investigate and verify epidemic.

2. Within 24 hours after the outbreak is detected, the Department of Health of the locality where the epidemic is committed shall report it to the Chairperson of the provincial People s Committee.

3. Within 24 hours after receiving report of the Department of Health, the Chairperson of the People s Committee of such province shall be responsible for the consideration and decision of announcement of epidemics of groups B and C according to its competence.

4. In case there are two provinces or more has announced the same epidemic in the List of group-B epidemics as prescribed in the Appendix attached to this Decision during average incubation period of such disease, the Minister of Health shall be responsible for the announcement of epidemic in accordance with Point b, Clause 2, Article 38 of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases.

Article 5. Conditions and orders for announcement of epidemic termination

1. Apart from meeting requirements as prescribed in Point b, Clause 1, Article 40 of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, the announcement of epidemic termination must meet the following conditions: There is no new infected case after the specific period for each disease as prescribed in the Appendix attached to this Decision.

2. If there is no new infected case after the specific period for each disease as prescribed in the Appendix attached to this Decision and all measures on prevention of epidemics are carried out as prescribed, the Department of Health shall report the Chairperson of the provincial People’s Committee for consideration and decision:

a) To announce epidemic termination of epidemics of groups B and C;

b) To propose the Minister of Health to make a decision on announcement of epidemic termination of epidemics of group A.

3. The Minister of Health shall decide:

a) To announce the termination of group A infectious diseases upon receipt of the proposal of the President of the People s Committee of the province where the epidemic occurred.

b) To announce the infectious diseases of group B when the provinces have declared the end of the epidemic;

c) To consider to suggest the Prime Minister to announce the end of the infectious disease of group A for the case the Prime Minister announce the epidemic.

Article 6. Responsibilities of Chairperson of the People s Committees of provinces

1. To direct, organize the implementation and examine, inspect the implementation of this Decision on the provincial area.

2. To command the Division of Health to carry out the statistic, management and report on monthly and annually data of infectious diseases in accordance with provisions of law.

Article 7. Responsibilities of the Minister of Health

1. To direct, organize the implementation and examine, inspect the implementation of this Decision nationwide

2. For newly arising dangerous infectious diseases of group A which it is unknown causative agent, and infectious diseases of group B and group C are not specified in the Appendix issued together with this Decision, on the basis of epidemiological characteristics or recommendations of the World Health Organization, the Minister of Health shall determine a certain period of time without detecting new cases to submit to the Prime Minister to consider and decide on amendment and supplementation the list of regulations stipulating the time for detecting no new cases of infection serving as a basis for announcing the termination of infectious epidemics.

Article 8. Effect

1. This Circular takes effect on March 15, 2016.

2. The Decision No. 64/2010/QD-TTg dated October 25, 2010 of the Prime Minister on conditions for announcement of epidemics and their termination expired from the effective date of this Decision.

Article 9. Implementation responsibility

Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of Government affiliated agencies, Chairperson of provincial and municipal cities’ People s Committee shall take responsibility to implement this Decision./.

APPENDIX

REGULATION ON THE BASIS FOR ANNOUNCEMENT OF EPIDEMIC TERMINATION BY THE AVERAGE TIME OF DISEASE INCUBATION AND THE PERIOD OF TIME WITHOUT DETECTION OF CASES OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(Issued together with Decision No. 02/2016/QD-TTg dated January 28, 2016 of the Prime Minister)