Directive 18/CT-UBND Ho Chi Minh City 2021 on socio-economic recovery and development

DIRECTIVE

On continuing to control and revise COVID-19 prevention and control measures and gradually restore and develop the social economy in Ho Chi Minh City

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Latterly, Ho Chi Minh City has drastically, synchronously, actively, and effectively performed the COVID-19 prevention and control according to the Government's Resolution No. 86/NQ-CP dated August 06, 2021, Resolution No. 05-NQ/TU dated September 15, 2021, of the 8^th Municipal Party Committee Meeting, with many important achievements. To be specific: The health system is strengthened and consolidated; the number of hospital admissions, severe diseases, and deaths continuously decreased; over 95% of people aged 18 years and over have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and over 45% of them have received the second dose; several pilot activities for socio-economic recovery and development in District 7, Can Gio district, and Cu Chi district are implemented safely; awareness of the people and enterprises about pandemic prevention and control has been improved; social security, food, and foodstuff supply is guaranteed.

However, the pandemic in the City still remains complicated, the number of new confirmed cases and patients undergoing treatment at home and health establishments and the death rate is still high. On the other hand, the vaccination rate in the provinces in the Southern key economic region is still very low while the number of people who received the second dose in the City is not high, which requires the City to carefully consider when issuing economic recovery decisions and policies applicable to the entire Region.

In order to promote the achievements in the COVID-19 prevention and control, gradually restore and develop the City's social economy in accordance with the current period and continue to seriously and effectively implement Resolution No. 86/NQ-CP, the Government's motto "safe and flexible adaptation, effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic”, the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee requests organizations and individuals in the City to continue to control and revise COVID-19 prevention and control measures and gradually restore and develop the social economy with the following specific contents:

I. OBJECTIVES - PRINCIPLES

1. Objectives

- To continue to control and prevent COVID-19 pandemic in the City; to give priority to protect the people's life and health, minimize the number of hospital admissions and deaths; to consolidate the health system, especially those at the grassroots.

- To gradually restore and develop the City's social economy in a safe, flexible, and effective manner; to pay attention to open activities of production and service zones; to ensure social security for the City's citizens.

- To get back to life with a new normal.

2. Principles

- To promote the role and mobilize all resources of the people and enterprises to participate in pandemic prevention and control and socio-economic recovery and development.

- To seriously implement directions of the Government, the Prime Minister, and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, regulations and guidance of the Ministry of Health; to strengthen the coordination with ministries, sectors, central and local agencies in the Region, resume production and labor supply chains.

- To strengthen the application of information technology in COVID-19 prevention and control, and promote administrative reform, create favorable conditions for citizens and enterprises; to effectively process without regulating more unnecessary administrative procedures for citizens and enterprises.

- To promote the effectiveness of leadership, centralized direction, and strong decentralization of sectors, levels, districts, Thu Duc City and wards, communes, and townships in order to promote responsibility and initiative, positivity and creativity in pandemic prevention and control, economic recovery, and implementation of social security.

- To implement step-by-step in a careful and cautious manner, with a motto of “safety put first", "the safe place will be reopened". To closely follow the practical situation to consider taking the appropriate social distancing measures.

II. MEASURES

From 18:00 on September 30, 2021, to continue to control and revise COVID-19 prevention and control measures, gradually restore and develop social economy under the appropriate roadmap according to the pandemic development in the City and the safety assessment result in accordance with the Ministry of Health's instructions.

1. Pandemic prevention and control

1.1. Medical-related works

a) Vaccination work

- To diversify vaccine sources, mobilize all resources to meet the vaccination rate according to the criteria regulated by the Ministry of Health, aiming for the earliest vaccine coverage for the entire population.

- To give priority in giving full doses for the frontline workers, people with underlying diseases, people over 50 years old, pregnant women, productive forces; to vaccinate children according to the Ministry of Health's instructions when there are suitable vaccine sources.

b) Testing and determining pandemic levels

- To seriously implement the testing strategy of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and directions of the Ministry of Health to actively detect and separate strong infection sources in the level-3 and level-4 risk areas and take appropriate pandemic prevention and control measures.

- To conduct screening tests for all cases showing suspected symptoms, conduct key surveillance tests at high-risk areas, crowded places such as wholesale markets, bus stations, vehicles, hospitals, and schools, etc.; to encourage enterprises, organizations, and the people to conduct periodic rapid antigen tests by themselves according to instructions provided by the health sector.

- To regularly assess the pandemic levels by administrative divisions with an appropriate scale and decide to take measures according to the Interim Guidance on “safe and flexible adaption, effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic” provided by the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

- To strictly control the current infection sources (detected F0 cases), timely detect new infection sources by testing plans depending on the risk levels.

c) Community-based care and management of F0 cases

- To promulgate the process to manage and handle upon detecting an F0 case in the community, production, business, service areas, and other areas according to requirements in the new situation, ensuring safety without disrupting operations.

- To ensure that 100% of districts and Thu Duc City have plans on setting up mobile health stations and teams to take care of COVID-19 cases in the community; to ensure that 100% of health stations have medical oxygen and timely give first aid to COVID-19 cases who are isolated at home, and at the same time, to promote the COVID-19 rapid response teams in localities; to develop plans on setting up mobile health stations at industrial zones and clusters.

- To mobilize all resources to participate in taking care of F0 cases at home, including charities, private clinics, and pharmacies, family doctors, retired health workers, etc.; to strengthen the application of information technology, combining Eastern and Western medicine in care and management of F0 cases.

d) Treatment

- To continue to promote the efficiency of the 3-story tower model in treatment, minimize the severe diseases and reduce the death rate to the lowest level; to equip adequate intensive care beds according to the Ministry of Health's criteria.

- To improve the treatment capacity of the hospital system, including private hospitals, actively respond to the pandemic development scenarios; to research to establish the “COVID Department” in infectious diseases and general hospitals.

- To build a warning system and determine the threshold of treatment capacity for COVID-19; to have a roadmap for rehabilitation of hospitals to ensure the performance of 2 functions in the new situation, both being ready to receive and treat COVID-19 patients, and to ensure normal medical examination and treatment functions.

dd) Strengthening and restoring the health system

- To restructure the treatment system, mobilize all resources, including the non-public system (hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, etc.); to develop a plan to secure human resources when the medical support forces withdraw.

- To consolidate and improve the quality of human resources and facilities of the health system, including hospitals, the City Center for Disease Control and Health Centers of districts, Thu Duc City, and health stations of wards, communes, and townships.

- To propose mechanisms and policies to mobilize all sources to participate in pandemic prevention and control and taking care of citizens.

1.2. Application of science and technology

a) To use an application developed by the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and the Ho Chi Minh City Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control to provide epidemiological information for the people, to manage the production, business, service, and transport.

To request to apply information technology applications to improve the efficiency of COVID-19 prevention and control, concurrently contribute to speeding up the digital transformation process of the City and departments, agencies, sectors, and localities.

d) To request all agencies, units, production and business establishments, service providers that are permitted to operate in the City to register QR codes at http://antoan-covid.tphcm.gov.vn/. By October 08, 2021, agencies, units, production and business establishments, service providers must scan QR codes (on smartphones or papers) of all visitors, customers, and employees; they also are required to use the City's application (or PC-COVID application) to control and organize their operations.

c) To assess the safe adaption level of each residential group or people’s group and regularly update it on the digital map.

d) To improve the rate of online public service provision by state administrative agencies and the rate of people using online public services at level 3, level 4.

To effectively develop and exploit the City’s shared database and the big data; to connect with national databases through the National Government Service Platform (NGSP) and HoChiMinhCity Local Government Service Platform (HCM LGSP).

dd) To develop the COVID-19 portal into a portal providing official, complete and accurate information about the pandemic; to develop a digital map system to effectively serve the direction and management of pandemic prevention and control in the new normal condition, and at the same time provide many utilities for the City’s citizens; develop Switchboard 1022 into a unified, multi-sectoral, multi-field information portal which is a multimedia communication channel between people and authorities at all levels of the City.

1.3. Ensuring social security and stabilizing social order and safety

a) Ensuring social security

- To provide the third support for people in difficulties in the City under Resolution No. 97/NQ-HDND dated September 22, 2021, of the Standing committee of Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, ensuring tó provide enough support to the right subjects without omissions or duplication.

- To promulgate policies and mobilize social resources to support lonely elderly and orphans due to COVID-19.

- To continue to support rice according to the Government’s allocation; to mobilize social resources to participate in taking care of the people, create favorable conditions for every organization and individual to participate in supporting people in difficulties to stabilize their lives.

- To promote the operational efficiency of the Center receiving and supporting essential goods for people in difficulties due to COVID-19 (Welfare Center); to constantly improve the efficiency of social security work, take care of people’s lives.

- To implement appropriate solutions to support, facilitate, foster, and strengthen the workforce to soon resume the production and business, avoiding labor shortage.

b) Protecting national defense, security, social order, and safety

To operate in the defensive zone against the new situation; to continue to firmly grasp, assess, and forecast the situation, as a basis for the struggle to neutralize all conspiracies and tricks to take advantage of the pandemic to fight against and other violations; to proactively detect and handle complex signs from the grassroots, to prevent them from becoming "hot spots" in terms of security and order; to ensure national defense and security, maintain political stability, social order, and safety, and prevent fire and explosion in all situations.

2. Citizens

- To always uphold the spirit of vigilance, initiative, flexibility, and encourage the citizens’ relatives and families to protect themselves, take care of their health, and live safely.

- To strictly implement the 5K rule (Mask - Distance - Health declaration - Disinfection - Avoid mass gatherings).

- To use QR codes to declare the movements of the VNEID application and QR codes showing the vaccination history of the Y te HCM or So suc khoe dien tu application (until the PC-COVID application is officially put into use) when joining the traffic; in case the QR code is unavailable, they must produce the following papers as requested by the functional agencies: (1) Papers proving the recovery from COVID-19 for less than 06 months; (2) Papers proving that they have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine (for the type requiring 2 doses) for at least 14 days. If citizens move to different provinces, they must follow Clause 3, Section II of this Directive.

- When showing symptoms of cough, fever, dyspnoea, etc., or needing a medical emergency, it is necessary to immediately contact the hotline of the local COVID-19 rapid response team or the 115 Emergency Center. In case people need urgent support with food and foodstuffs, they should immediately contact the local social security teams, Switchboard 1022, or register on the welfare application of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City.

-  Foreigners entering the City must make health declarations at border gates and use QR codes or other papers for further activities in the City.

3. Transport and traffic control

- To ensure the smooth circulation of goods between Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities to serve the people and the production, business, import, and export.

- Passenger transport by road and water in the City must be implemented following the pandemic level of each region and locality, under the guidance of the Department of Transport; personal vehicles are only allowed to operate within the City.

- Inter-provincial passenger transport (by road, water, railroad, and air) shall be implemented according to the appropriate roadmap as planned by the Ministry of Transport and regulated by the Ministry of Health.

- The inter-provincial movement of priority subjects (officers, workers, experts, those who come for medical examination and treatment, etc.), the transportation of employees to the City, and other emergencies shall comply with the Department of Transport's instructions.

- The transportation of goods by motorbikes using technology to connect with customers (shipper) shall comply with the Department of Industry and Trade's instructions.

- To strengthen the movement control at checkpoints at gateways bordering with other provinces. At such checkpoints, vehicles and people joining traffic shall continue to be controlled by QR codes and identification tools applicable to specific sectors and fields. To strengthen the traffic control according to the actual situation, avoiding crowded situations and traffic jams at checkpoints.

4. Operations of agencies, units, organizations, and individuals (see Appendices 1, 2, 3).

III. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1. Heads of Departments, agencies, sectors, and enterprises located in the City shall, based on this Directive, issue regulations, plans, and guidance on the implementation at agencies, units, localities, and fields under their management; manage and organize the inspection and surveillance, handle violations according to the competence.

2. Relevant departments, agencies, and sectors shall advise the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to closely coordinate with central agencies, relevant provinces, and cities in implementing this Directive in an effective and synchronous manner.

3. People's Committees of districts and Thu Duc City shall develop and implement plans detailing this Directive in their areas according to the actual situation with attention paid to the following contents:

- When implementing blockade by areas or conducting quarantine for COVID-19 prevention and control in the locality, it is necessary to determine the smallest and narrowest scope and scale of social distancing (to each house); synchronously and effectively implement health measures such as pandemic prevention, testing, treatment, vaccination, ensuring that citizens can access private-public healthcare from grassroots.

- Establishing regular and irregular interdisciplinary inspection teams/groups to inspect and supervise the pandemic prevention and control at production and business establishments and service providers located in the area, strictly handle cases of violation. Enterprises in export processing zones, industrial parks, hi-tech zones, and Quang Trung Software Park shall be inspected and supervised by the City's Management Board of Export Processing and Industrial Zones, the City's Hi-Tech Park Management Board, and Quang Trung Software City Development Company Limited.

- Chairpersons of People's Committees of districts and Thu Duc City shall assess the pandemic levels according to instructions provided by the health sector; carefully consider, make decisions, and take responsibility for the appropriate adjustment of socio-economic activities in each locality, neighborhood, hamlet, residential group, and people's group; ensure synchronization, efficiency, and safety. In case of difficulties or problems, they should report to the City People's Committee for direction.

4. Focusing on the work of information, propaganda, ideological education, and orientation throughout the political system, people so that they firmly grasp and effectively implement this Directive, and promptly acknowledge, absorb feedback and assessment to make appropriate adjustments.

 5. People’s Councils at all levels, Municipal Party Committee's Commission for Mass Mobilization, the Propaganda Department of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee, and socio-political organizations at all levels shall continue to coordinate in implementing, inspecting, and supervising according to regulations.

6. Departments, sectors, agencies, People’s Committees of districts and Thu Duc City, People's Committees of wards, communes, and townships, agencies, units, enterprises, and citizens in the City are requested to make efforts, solidarity, and determination to strictly and effectively implement this Directive.

In the course of implementation, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City shall consider adjusting this Directive according to the pandemic development, regulations of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and instructions of the Ministry of Health./.

APPENDIX 1

Operations of agencies, units, organizations, and individuals
(Attached to the Directive No. 18/CT-UBND dated September 30, 2021, of the Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City)

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I. PERMITTED ACTIVITIES

1. State agencies and units, political organizations, socio-political organizations, socio-professional organizations and central agencies and units located in Ho Chi Minh City; Heads of agencies and units shall decide the number of cadres, civil servants, public employees, and employees according to regulations of the City People's Committee, and the Set of criteria for assessment of safety in COVID-19 prevention and control.

2. Consular offices, international organizations and foreign economic-cultural offices with headquarters located in the City shall proactively decide on working methods suitable to their characteristics according to regulations on COVID-19 prevention and control measures provided by the City People's Committee and the Ministry of Health.

3. Public and non-public medical examination and treatment establishments, pharmaceutical business establishments, public and private establishments trading cosmetics, medical material and equipment may operate, provided that they satisfy the Set of criteria for assessment of safety in COVID-19 prevention and control (according to Appendix 2).

4. Production, trading, business, and service provision activities may operate, provided that they satisfy the Set of criteria for assessment of safety in COVID-19 prevention and control (according to Appendix 3).

5. Operations of religious, belief and worship establishments; resorts, hotels, motels, sightseeing tours; cultural and artistic performances, gymnastics, sports, funerals, weddings:

5.1. Religious, belief and worship establishments may organize activities with a maximum of 10 participants. In case at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, they may organize activities with 60 participants maximum.

5.2. Resorts, hotels, motels, sightseeing tours may operate with no more than 50% capacity, provided that their customers have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 or have negative SARS-CoV-2 test results within 72 hours from the date of arrival.

5.3. Cultural, artistic, gymnastics, sports and competition events are allowed to be held with a maximum of 60 people provided that at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19.

5.4. Funerals and weddings:

- In-house funerals or weddings: May be organized with a maximum of 10 participants. In case at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, they may organize funerals or weddings with 60 participants maximum.

- Outdoor funerals or weddings: May be organized with a maximum of 15 participants. In case at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, they may organize funerals or weddings with 90 participants maximum.

6. Education and training activities: To continue to organize indirect teaching on Internet or through television; consolidate the conditions to be able to combine teaching - learning directly. Training forms for fully vaccinated persons, including direct teaching may be considered provided that all safe criteria are satisfied according to regulations.

7. In-house or outdoor crowded events:

- In-house events (meetings, training, seminars, etc.): May be organized with a maximum of 10 participants. In case at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, they may organize funerals or weddings with 60 participants maximum.

- Outdoor events: May be organized with a maximum of 15 participants. In case at least 90% of participants have been fully vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19, they may organize funerals or weddings with 90 participants maximum.

8. Other cases must be permitted by the competent agencies.

II. SUSPENDED OPERATIONS

1. Services and business activities: bar, beer club, pub, spa, massage, beauty services, on-site food service, cinema, circus, discotheque, karaoke, video games.

2. Spontaneous markets, street vendors, street tickets.

3. Other activities except for the cases permitted to operate according to Section I, Appendix 1; Appendix 2 and Appendix 3./.

APPENDIX 2

Permitted public and non-public medical examination and treatment establishments, establishments trading in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical equipment, biological products and supplies

(Attached to the Directive No. 18/CT-UBND dated September 30, 2021, of the Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City)

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Group 1. Public and non-public hospitals, general clinics, specialized clinics

1. General and specialized hospitals.

2. Infirmaries under the armed forces.

3. General clinics.

4. All types of specialized clinics (including laboratory, image diagnosis clinics, X-ray rooms, traditional medicine diagnosis and treatment clinics).

5. Family medicine clinics.

6. Maternity ward.

Group 2. Public and non-public medical service establishments

1. Injection, dressing change, pulse counting and temperature and blood pressure measurement service establishments.

2. Home healthcare service establishments.

3. Establishments providing emergency and patient transportation services in Vietnam or abroad.

4. Optical glasses service establishments.

5. Denture prosthesis service establishments.

Group 3. Public and non-public establishments trading in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, medical equipment, biological products and supplies