Industrial park employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by August
Addressing a COVID-19 review meeting in Hanoi on June 11, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said efforts are needed to ensure all employees working at industrial parks nationwide are vaccinated against the virus by August, 2021.
Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam has asked localities to learn lessons from pandemic prevention at indsutrial parks in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.
Dam pointed out that vaccination is the best way to prevent virus infection, but it is difficult to secure sufficient vaccines for inoculations, as manufacturers have agreed on the volume but not delivery time.
“There is no point in worrying about financial sources, but the most difficult thing is how to get the vaccines as soon as possible,” said the Deputy PM.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam has reached agreements with AstraZeneca, COVAX Facility, Sputnik V, Moderna, and Pfizer/BioNTech to obtain approximately 120 million doses. However, manufacturers have yet to set out a timetable for vaccine rollouts.
Vietnam has so far received more than 2.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and approximately 1.5 million doses have been administered.
The Deputy PM noted that the virus has spread to industrial parks and export processing zones, making the COVID-19 fight more difficult, as localities have acquired no experience in combating the disease in such a crowded working environment.
It would be a completely different problem when the virus breaks out at industrial parks, Dam said, citing the consequences of the fresh outbreak at industrial parks in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.
He stressed the outbreak at industrial parks in the country’s two largest coronavirus hotspots has taught localities a valuable lesson about pandemic prevention.
To prevent such an outbreak, he said health declaration must be mandatory for all employees, and those of high risk groups must be subject to screening tests. Yet the viable solution, according to the Deputy PM, is vaccination.
“We are trying to vaccinate all employees at high-risk industrial parks by July and at other industrial parks nationwide by August,” concluded Dam.
Vietnam has confirmed more than 6,500 COVID-19 cases in 39 cities and provinces nationwide since the virus recurred in late April.
The latest outbreak has forced Bac Giang, the country’s largest COVID-19 hotspot with close to 3,500 cases, to temporarily close four industrial parks that are home to 322 enterprises which are employing roughly 150,000 employees.
Bac Ninh, another COVID-19 hotspot and Bac Giang’s neighbour, has also been forced to lay off 42,000 employees due to the closures of production facilities during the latest COVID-19 outbreak.
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