Hanoi prepares for general election amid Covid-19 resurgence

Hanoi needs to achieve the dual goals including controlling the fresh pandemic as well as maintaining production and business activities, especially keeping the polls safe from Covid-19 to ensure the success of the upcoming election of deputies to the 15th National Assembly and all-levels People’s Councils for the 2021-26 tenure, which falls on May 23.

Dinh Tien Dung, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, and delegates are checking an election point in Hoang Mai district. Photo: Viet Thanh

According to Dung, this time, the outbreak flares up in health centers and industrial zones, threatening to claim more victims than the previous waves of infections.

“In the face of the complicated and unpredictable developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, the No. 1 goal of the city’s authority in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is to protect the safety of people's lives and absolutely prevent the pandemic from spreading in the community,” Dung said.

He stressed that each hospital and each medical facility must have its own preparation plan including a safe admission process for patients with suspected symptoms of Covid-19 infection, as well as the process of transporting and caring for patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

“It is time for the health sector, hospitals, and medical examination and treatment facilities to further promote the application of information technology (IT) in medical examination and treatment since it ensures both effective Covid-19 prevention as well as the medical examination, treatment, care and protection of the people's health,” he said.

IT application helps patients register for medical examination and treatment online, as well as assisting hospitals in managing patients and their relatives and facilitates information sharing among hospitals, hospitals and authorities, Dung stressed.

Dinh Tien Dung, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee is checking preventive activities at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi's Dong Anh district. Photo: Viet Thanh

Departments of Health, Party committees, and authorities of localities must strengthen coordination, facilitate and take measures to protect the safety of hospitals and health centers in the locality in association with timely praise and reward localities that perform well and have initiatives, and strictly discipline poor workplaces, Dung said.

Party committees and local authorities must actively manage, inspect and closely supervise production and business establishments around hospitals to ensure that these facilities strictly comply with the regulations on Covid-19 prevention and control, the municipal Party secretary added.

The health sector continues to closely follow the progress of vaccine procurement by the Ministry of Health, which focuses on completing testing and screening of people returning from pandemic areas, promptly detecting, zoning, isolating, tracing cases, and preventing the spread of the disease to the community.

Secretary of the City Party Committee Dung said that all levels and branches of the city must coordinate with the management board of the city’s industrial parks and export processing zones. 

“Each industrial zone, industrial cluster, and production facility must have a plan to Covid-19 prevent and control based on the current situation,” he said.