Major General Nguyen Xuan Kien, Director of the Department of Military Medicine under the General Department of Logistics and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ACMM, chaired the event.

The workshop aimed to review ASEAN member countries’ experience in managing quarantine facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, provide military medical officers of ASEAN nations with ways to manage these facilities, and complete ACMM’s guidelines on quarantine facility management.

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During the event

At the event, delegates reviewed Vietnam’s successful tactics and measures in COVID-19 prevention and control, especially in establishing and managing concentrated quarantine facilities which accommodate those returning from epidemic-hit areas.

Among hundreds of quarantine facilities established nationwide, more than 170 facilities run by the Vietnamese military with more than 30,000 staff and workers have received and quarantined over 85,000 Vietnamese citizens returning home from epidemic-hit areas and those with close contact with suspected COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 patients. These military-run facilities continue hosting Vietnamese returning from abroad and people with close contact with suspected COVID-19 cases and patients.

According to the organizers, units should use their available facilities to support their managed quarantine zones. Apart from the management board, a quarantine facility has a logistics department in charge of providing food, entertainment, and health care for the quarantined and a guard force which is tasked to ensure security and safety in the quarantine area.

During the workshop, delegates pointed out difficulties during the quarantine period, such as non-cooperation, excessive requirements, and violations of the quarantine areas’ regulations while both the quarantined and the service forces have to live in rooms without air-conditioners to avoid cross-infection. Furthermore, the service forces have to live far from their families and work intensively, thereby affecting their health.

ACMM Board of Directors also discussed related issues arising in the current context.

Translated by Mai Huong