Official Dispatch 2279/UBND-VX to prevent, control the COVID-19 pandemic

To:

- Heads of Departments, agencies and sectors of the City;

- Chairpersons of People's Committees of Thu Duc City and other districts;

- Enterprises run by the City’s authorities.

Following the Public Telegram No. 914/CD-TTg dated July 6, 2021, of the Prime Minister on strengthening prevention and control measures against the COVID-19 pandemic in order to realize the “dual goal” and the Official Dispatch No. 1691/VPCP-KGVX dated July 7, 2021, of the Governmental Office on the implementation of the Directive No. 16/CT-TTg;

In the face of COVID-19 pandemic developments in the City, with the motto “basing on existing measures with innovation; drawing on hands-on experiences, gradually improving and expanding the implementation; in a non-perfectionist and unhurried manner” in order to thoroughly localize, trace and stamp out the spread of the pandemic in the community, the Municipal People's Committee orders its sub-units to attach importance to the following contents:

1. Impose social distancing measures in the entire City under the Directive No. 16/CT-TTg dated March 31, 2020, of the Prime Minister within 15 days from 00:00 on July 9, 2021, on to the principle that all families, residential groups - people’s groups, neighborhoods - hamlets, communes - wards - townships, urban - rural districts and Thu Duc City shall be isolated from one another.

The Steering Committees for Disease Prevention and Control of districts and Thu Duc City shall strictly adhere to the abovementioned principle in enforcing social distancing measures in their respective localities, ensuring that each area under their management will be completely under social distancing. They shall take the time of social distancing under the Directive No. 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister to drastically implement and tighten preventive measures against the pandemic with the aim to achieve the best results.

2. In order to minimize the spread of the disease in the community, all citizens shall be requested to stay at home, except the following cases of absolute necessity:

- Going out to purchase foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and other essential goods and services;

- Emergency cases such as: medical emergencies, medical examination and treatment; disasters, fires, funerals.

- Working at State agencies, units, armed forces, diplomatic missions and at establishments mentioned in Section 4 of this Official Dispatch.

Anyone leaving home must wear a mask, wash their hands with soap or an antiseptic solution; gatherings of more than 02 people in public places or outside of offices and hospitals shall be banned, and a minimum distance of 02 meters between two people shall be maintained.

All citizens are requested to voluntarily abide by pandemic prevention and control measures; proactively made voluntary medical declarations; fully implement measures to protect themselves and their families and participate responsibly in pandemic prevention and control activities of local authorities and communities.

The People's Committees of wards, communes and townships shall organize round-the-clock patrols and surveillance teams to prevent mass gatherings and strictly handle cases of violations of anti-pandemic rules; especially intensify administrative sanctions on people who leave their homes not in the cases specified above and without legitimate reasons.

3. All types of non-essential services and businesses shall continue to be suspended; wholesale and traditional markets, if they do not meet the safety criteria for pandemic prevention and control, shall be temporarily closed and remedial measures shall be taken.

Lottery ticket sales of lottery agents and lottery ticket venders in the City, as well as take-out food services shall be suspended within 15 days from 00:00 on July 9, 2021.

4. Production establishments, construction sites, traffic and construction works; establishments providing essential services and goods (such as: food, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals; gasoline, oil; electricity; water; fuel, etc.); banks, treasuries, service providers directly related to banking activities and business assistance (such as notaries, lawyers, registry, registered security transactions, etc.), securities, postal services, telecommunications, transportation assistance services, import and export of goods, medical examination and treatment, funerals, etc. may continue to operate or take place. However, heads of the above-mentioned establishments shall be responsible for ensuring absolute safety and fully implementing anti-pandemic measures, including the follows:

a) Strictly comply with 5K rules, especially wearing masks, disinfecting, measuring body temperature, providing adequate means and supplies for pandemic prevention and control in accordance with the regulations and recommendations of health authorities;

b) Require their employees to make medical declarations, comply with the restricted contact and communication measures;

c) Suspend non-urgent activities and reduce the gathering of employees;

d) Organize and strictly manage the shuttles of employees (if any) to the workplaces to prevent the risks of being infected with the disease.

If the above requirements are not met, their operations must be suspended.

5. State agencies and units shall allow cadres, civil servants, and public employees to use information technology to work from home; only cases of absolutely necessity, such as performing combat duties or pandemic prevention and control duties, standing agency watches, providing essential goods and services, processing confidential documents and other necessary tasks as required, shall be allowed to work at office.

All in-person meetings (except for meetings to discuss anti-pandemic measures or handle urgent issues of the units) shall be cancelled. The organization of permissible in-person meetings must be approved by the heads of the units but no more than 10 people are allowed to present in one meeting room, and all participants shall strictly comply with the 5K rules of the Ministry of Health.

The number of people working at office shall be decided by the heads of agencies and units and must not exceed one-third of the total staff so as to ensure both fulfillment of the units’ tasks and accordance with the directions of the City; particularly, the armed forces and the City's health sector shall request 100% of their staff to stay on-duty, and the special units shall send documents to the Department of Home Affairs for submission to the Municipal People's Committee for decision.

Heads of agencies and units, based on their working programs, shall made specific assignments to ensure the completion of their tasks in 2021; speed up the processing of dossiers through online public services at levels 3 and 4; temporarily not receive dossiers directly submitted by the citizens and businesses (except for special cases decided by the head of each agency or unit).

Each agency and unit shall strictly control people entering and leaving their offices, effectively organize the COVID-19 Working Groups, and ready plans in response to the cases that their offices are blocked or isolated.

6. The Department of Transport shall:

Coordinate transport in the City with the following major contents:

- Halt public passenger transportation by cars. Minimize travelling of the citizens; except for vehicles on official duties, buses transporting workers, experts, quarantined people, vehicles transporting production materials and goods, and taxis transporting people to and from hospitals and medical centers in case of necessity.

- Halt passenger transportation by motorcycles (including app-based and traditional motorcycle taxis).

- Actively coordinate with the Departments of Transport in neighboring provinces to ensures smooth traffic and create favorable conditions for vehicles transporting goods and workers.

- Halt river-crossing passenger terminals and public passenger transportation inland wharves (except for the terminals of Can Gio – Can Giuoc, Can Thanh - Thanh An, and Thanh An - Thieng Lieng). All captains and crew members of foreign and domestic seagoing vessels and inland watercrafts entering and leaving the Ho Chi Minh City seaport are not allowed to disembark. When inland waterway vessels enter or leave inland waterway ports or wharves, all captains and crew members of them are limited to disembark (only 01 representative of the crew shall be assigned to carry out port authority procedures and must strictly comply with anti-pandemic regulations)

- Proactively propose the Ministry of Transport to consider limiting or suspending aviation and railway transportation to and from Ho Chi Minh City.

7. The Department of Health shall:

7.1. Strengthen tracing, rapid testing, finding the sources of infection and early quarantine F1 cases to the prevent the spread into the community

- The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control shall coordinate with the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City, the Information and Communication Technology Center under the City’s Department of Information and Communications to direct and guide medical centers to assess the situation of pandemic-hit areas based on the data of infected cases, to make epidemiological maps of outbreaks and to localize the at-risk areas in Thu Duc City and districts, thus proposing the local authorities to plan the collection of testing samples of the right subjects as well as decide which areas to be blocked, or organize mass screening testing to detect potential outbreaks, promptly handle and prevent the spread of the disease.

- Conduct epidemiological investigations to quickly trace F0 cases, concentrated quarantine F1 cases to perform rapid antigen testing and single-sample RT-PCR testing. If the rapid antigen testing results are positive, further epidemiological investigations of their close contacts shall be conducted in order to quarantine and test while waiting for the RT-PCR testing results; at the same time, F1 cases shall be guided to quarantine themselves at home.

- As for local outbreaks: Rapid antigen testing and pool-sample RT-PCR testing shall be performed at residential groups and expanded to the neighborhoods (depending on epidemiological factors) or in an entire company, etc. If the rapid antigen testing results are positive, the single-sample RT-PCR testing shall be immediately performed and the further epidemiological investigation of the close contacts of such cases shall be conducted to quarantine and test while waiting for the RT-PCR testing results.

- Conduct mass screening testing (with focus and plans) with the number of tests in balance with the total testing capacity of laboratories, ensuring the quick and accurate results and avoiding backlog of samples within a day.

7.2. Expand concentrated quarantine zones to reach a capacity of 50,000 beds, ensure safety, prevent cross-infection in quarantine facilities, and prevent the spread of the infection into the community.

7.3. Continue to implement the Treatment Response Plan when the City has 20,000 cases of COVID-19, quickly carry out the procurements of medical equipment and supplies so that medical facilities do not lack medical equipment for emergency care and treatment of patients; adjust the system of treatment facilities to suit the new developments of the disease; prioritize resources, with 1,000 resuscitation beds, for the treatment of critically ill patients.

7.4. Continue to strengthen the control and screening of patients coming to medical examination and treatment facilities in order to early detect people infected with COVID-19; periodically conduct screening testing for medical staff, patients and inpatient relatives.

7.5. Organize the vaccination against COVID-19 in line with the planned process and ensuring quality and safety to soon achieve herd immunity, thereby controlling the spread of the coronavirus in the long term, especially the more transmissible variants, as well as prevent the arising of new variants.

The Department of Health shall advise the Municipal People’s Committee on the plan to control the disease in the City ​​in the direction of concretizing the tasks to be deployed in each day (from July 9 to July 23, 2021).

8. The Department of Information and Communications shall:

- Strengthen the dissemination of information and mobilize all citizens to understand, calm down, share and actively implement safe and effective anti-pandemic measures; resolutely handle acts of spreading false and fake information causing suspicion and internal disturbances, especially extreme and inciting acts and expressions.

- Promote dissemination of information to all walks of people in the City to raise public awareness and their sense of self-protection.

- Guide the agencies and units, and their staff to use information technology to perform their tasks online and work from home; guide the application of information technology in managing concentrated quarantine zones and at-home quarantines in accordance with the regulations, managing and analyzing testing results, tracing cases of infection, vaccination and other pandemic prevention and control activities.

- Strictly handle acts of sharing false information and causing public anxiety, which adversely affects the City's pandemic prevention and control.

9. The Department of Internal Affairs shall:

- Give advice on the implementation of Section 5 of this Official Dispatch.

- Inspect the pandemic prevention and control at State agencies and offices.

10. The Department of Tourism shall:

Assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Department of Health in developing and proposing a framework of criteria, mobilize hotels that are eligible for medical quarantine of F1 cases, and guide the Chairpersons of the People's Committees of Thu Duc City and other districts to decide on using such hotels as local quarantine facilities.

11. The Department of Industry and Trade shall:

- Order enterprises to stabilize and increase the amount of goods supplied to modern distribution systems (large and key distribution systems such as Saigon Co.op, Satra, Bach Hoa Xanh, etc.), increase the storage and sales capacity up to 120,000-150,000 tons/month to fully meet the demands of the citizens in the City.

- Request small business households and traders at 03 wholesale markets to receive from wholesalers about 4,000 - 5,000 tons of vegetables and fresh foods per day on average; advise on the establishment of goods transshipment points between other provinces and the City.

- Activate the market stabilization program and ensure the supply of goods at the right price for the people.

- Promote the supply capacity of modern and traditional distribution channels, including 106 supermarkets, 124 traditional markets, over 2,000 mini supermarkets and convenience stores, and more than 28,000 points of sale in the localities.

- Strongly promote online shopping solutions of 17 supermarkets and large distribution systems; at the same time, organize supplementary points of sale, provide remote shopping services for needy people who cannot use phones to order and shop online.

- Coordinate with the Department of Health provide guidelines on handling, disinfecting, isolating suspected cases, and working in shifts or working groups, as well as the mandatory conditions for businesses, which have been temporarily suspended due to the contact with the infections, to return to normal operations soon.

- Coordinate with the Department of Transport to create favorable conditions for the transportation and circulation of goods.

- Coordinate with the People's Committees of Thu Duc City and other districts to inspect and guide the operation of traditional markets and take supplementary solutions to provide goods for people, thus ensuring no interruption on the supply chain of goods.

12. The Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shall:

- Coordinate with the City’s departments and agencies to urgently implement the Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP of the Government on policies to support COVID-19-hit employees and employers and the Official Dispatch No. 2209/UBND-KT dated July 1, 2021, of the Municipal People’s Committee of the City on implementing of policies to support people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the Resolution No. 09/2021/NQ-HDND dated June 25, 2021, of the Municipal People's Council of the City.

Check and gather homeless, wandering, and orphaned people staying in public places to the Social Support Center of the City to manage, control and protect them from the pandemic.

13. The Department of Construction shall:

- Advise the Municipal People’s Committee of the City on building concentrated quarantine zones and field hospitals for treatment of COVID-19.

- Research and design makeshift shelters, tents, and field toilets (made of lightweight materials) that are easy to construct in concentrated quarantine zones and field hospitals.

- Ensure the conditions for the use of the City’s resettlement housing areas for the pandemic prevention and control.

14. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment shall:

Assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with relevant units in collecting, transporting and treating wastes of concentrated quarantine zones and field hospitals in the City, not to allow garbage congestion to cause environmental pollution; especially, wastes of high-risk areas shall be treated first.

15. The Municipal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City shall:

- Enhance their directions to ensure security and order, prevent crimes, strictly handle violations of security and order and violations of the pandemic prevention and control within the functions and powers of the police forces.

- Re-establish 12 anti-COVID-19 checkpoints run by the City.

- Arrange forces to ensure security and order at: pandemic control checkpoints and stations; quarantine zones and blocked areas in the City.

- Coordinate with other forces in tracing suspected cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the City.

16. The Ho Chi Minh City Command shall:

- Manage and operate the City's concentrated quarantine zones; coordinate with the Department of Health to arrange and expand the City's concentrated quarantine zones.

- Direct the Military Commands of Thu Duc City and other districts to act as Heads of the executive committees of the local concentrated medical quarantine zones.

- Coordinate with the Municipal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City to ensure security and order in the City.

17. The Management Boards of Industrial and Export Processing Zones, Management Boards of Hi-Tech Parks and Quang Trung Software City Development One-Member Co., Ltd. shall:

- Uphold the spirit of "fighting the pandemic and promoting production", "fighting the pandemic for production, promoting production to fight the pandemic"; urgently appraise the enterprises which have registered for both isolation and production, of which: those are safe and meet the requirements and conditions for pandemic prevention and control shall continue to organize production and business, and be encouraged to create conditions for their workers to stay in premises of the factories, export processing zones, industrial parks, etc. with specific and appropriate requirements; any enterprise that does not meet the conditions shall not be allowed to organize their production.

- Promote the effectiveness of COVID-19 Working Groups and COVID-19 Safety Teams at the enterprises in mobilizing and guiding workers and employees to take measures to prevent and control the pandemic.

- Conduct rapid testing for COVID-19 for their workers, in which businesses are encouraged to pay for the costs of buying rapid test kits and conducting testing for their employees once a week.

- Review unused factories and warehouses to use them as temporary quarantine areas for suspects of infections which are waiting the results of F0 or F1 cases so as for the health sector to transport them to the concentrated quarantine and treatment zones in accordance with the regulations.

- Inspect and supervise the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic at the enterprises in export processing zones, industrial parks, high-tech parks, and the Quang Trung Software Park.

18. The People's Committees of Thu Duc City and districts shall:

- Thoroughly popularize to the political system of the localities and local people; work out specific plans for their respective localities, mobilize forces and resources to roll out such plans.

- Promote the initiative of the Steering Committees for Pandemic Prevention and Control from the districts, Thu Duc City to the wards, communes and towns. Uphold the role of Secretaries of Party cells of hamlets and neighborhoods in pandemic prevention and control; organize community-based COVID-19 working groups, each for every 100 households, with specific lists of households for inspection and monitoring.

- Take direct and comprehensive responsibility in performing the tasks in their respective localities; the cases beyond their competence shall be reported to the Municipal People’s Committee of the City.

- Take responsibility for directing, inspecting and urging the implementation of the plan to ensure essential goods and food for people in their localities. Implement the Official Dispatch No. 2268/UBND-KT dated July 7, 2021, and the Plan No. 2270/PA-UBND dated July 7, 2021, of the Municipal People’s Committee on ensuring essential goods for people in the City.

- Inspect and supervise the prevention and control of COVID-19 at factories, workshops, and large-scale enterprises that are not under the management of export processing zones, industrial parks, hi-tech parks, and the Quang Trung Software Park.

- Set up checkpoints in neighborhoods, hamlets and on key routes and areas.

- Organize regular patrols in their localities, strictly handle violations of security and order, violations in the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control activities, or failure to comply with the above provisions of the Official Dispatch.

- Review and strengthen the local concentrated medical quarantine capacity to meet the requirements of COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control in the near future, with synchronous solutions in line with the regulations and instructions of the Municipal Steering Committee.

- Regularly update the pandemic situation using the form and via the system quickly, promptly and accurately at the request of the Municipal Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

19. The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment One-Member Ltd. Co. shall:

Uphold its capacity of collection, transportation and timely treatment of COVID-19-related wastes in the City in accordance with the regulations; promptly report to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment for advice on solutions to ensure that the wastes of concentrated quarantine zones and field hospitals in the City are treated in a safe manner.

20. The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of the City and the socio-political organizations and community-based COVID-19 working groups should coordinate with functional agencies in disseminating and mobilizing people from all walks of life to observe and comply with the pandemic prevention and control measures; at the same time, take care of the disadvantaged and ensure social security; deploy and supervise the organization and implementation of the Resolution No. 09/2021/NQ-HDND dated June 25, 2021 of the Municipal People's Council of the City, ensuring that the policies timely support the right beneficiaries.

21. Currently, the number of infections is increasing rapidly, but the City's pandemic prevention and control resources are still guaranteed. The City is ready for any pandemic scenario and always maintains abundant goods at supermarkets and traditional markets. The City recommends that citizens should not buy and hoard goods, and do not gather in large numbers at supermarkets and traditional markets; the citizens should stay calm, trust the authorities and strictly implement the anti-pandemic measures of the Central Government and the City’s authorities; promote the spirit that “every citizen is a fighter; each family, residential group, and neighborhood is a fortress against the pandemic" , and at the same time, support the authorities and show sympathy for each other when the City’s authorities apply large-scale distancing and social distancing measures to control the pandemic.

Heads of the Departments, agencies and sectors, Chairpersons of the People's Committees of Thu Duc City and other districts are requested, based on their functions and tasks, to advise the Municipal People’s Committee to work out plans and solutions on social distancing in the City, before July 9, 2021; take accountability to the Chairman of the Municipal People's Committee if there are cases not strictly complying with the regulations in their assigned localities and sectors; and promptly report their difficulties and problems to the upper levels./.