COVID-19: F1 cases to self-isolate at home under strict scrutiny

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has suggested that F1 cases (those in close contact with COVID-19 patients) should be encouraged to self-isolate at home under strict scrutiny to ease the overloading at concentrated quarantine facilities.

The model should be piloted in localities where concentrated quarantine facilities are overloaded with people, Dam said at an online working session on May 20 with leaders of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces which are the country’s two largest coronavirus hotspots at present.

The home quarantine model should be executed in large families and those who are required to self-isolate must be monitored through information technology tools, for instance the video surveillance CCTV system, said the Deputy PM who is also head of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

He asked both Bac Giang and Bac Ninh which have seen cases skyrocket at industrial parks over the past few days to intensify contact tracing and extensive testing, while maintaining production at safe industrial parks to prevent distuption of production chains.

Industrial parks that meet safety criteria are allowed to resume operation in order to maintain supply chains for large corporations and multinational groups worldwide, he said.

As testing is slow going in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, the Deputy PM requested the two localities to follow a group testing model that Da Nang is carrying out. Accordingly, both localities are encouraged to implement a group test of five, 10 or 20 mixed samples together to save test kits and ramp up the testing process.

Vietnam has confirmed nearly 1,800 community infections in 30 cities and provinces across the country since the virus recurred in late April. More than half the total were recorded in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, mostly at industrial parks.