The event was chaired by Senior Lieutenant General Tran Don, Deputy Defense Minister and Head of the Steering Board for COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control under the Ministry of National Defense.
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Sr. Lt. Gen. Tran Don, Deputy Defense Minister speaks at the meeting. |
During the teleconference, Major General Nguyen Xuan Kien, Head of the Department of Military Medicine, reported to delegates the results of the pandemic prevention in the military recently. Up to now, the military has set up over 120 concentrated quarantine locations and received around 55,000 people in total. Thirty six infected cases have been detected at the quarantine areas thanks to the serious screening tests and control. Fortunately, the military has reported no infected cases so far, but 803 troops were quarantined because of their close contact to COVID-19 patients. Currently, military hospitals are treating 15 infected cases.
Addressing the event, General Don stressed that the country has entered the third stage of the pandemic prevention. If the pandemic continues to develop complicatedly, the Government may raise the alert to a higher level. Therefore, he asked all units to seriously embrace senior levels’ directives on the pandemic prevention, provide timely advice for local authorities to stop the disease effectively. In addition, he urged military regions’ leadership to be ready for expanding quarantine areas, particularly in Western and Southwestern border provinces, to welcome Vietnamese citizens returning from Laos and Cambodia.
The deputy defense minister also directed military press agencies to enhance information dissemination to raise troops’ and people’s awareness of the pandemic prevention.
He suggested several urgent measures such as travel restrictions for troops, avoiding gatherings of over 20 people, and compulsory medical declaration for all troops before entering their barracks.
On the other hand, military hospitals should regularly conduct disinfection, protect their medical personnel to prevent cross infection, and prepare their facilities to be ready for receiving COVID-19 patients.
General Don required logistical units to accelerate the manufacture of mobile laboratories and test kits to serve the disease screening tests in the time to come.
The defense leader also asked all units to improve their training for combat readiness and hoped that they will successfully fulfill all assigned missions.
Translated by Trung Thanh