The event was chaired by Lieutenant General Vu Hai San, Deputy Defense Minister and Head of the ministry’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, and attended by representatives from the General Departments of Politics and Logistics and the Border Guard Command.
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Lieutenant General Vu Hai San speaking at the online conference |
Reports delivered at the meeting revealed that amid the complicated development of the fourth COVID-19 wave, the military has embraced higher-level’s directives on COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.
The MND sent delegations to check combat readiness and the observance of COVID-19 prevention and control regulations in military units and localities, while the Department of Military Medicine under the General Department of Logistics built a plan to form 971 COVID-19 testing teams in case of the worse pandemic complication.
Defense agencies and military units have mobilized more than 1,000 troops to back Bac Giang’ and Bac Ninh’s efforts in collecting, testing samples and setting up three field hospitals to receive and treat local COVID patients. Chemical and medical units disinfected COVID-19-hit areas in the two provinces.
Meanwhile, Military Region 7 has arranged facilities to quarantine 6,315 citizens and formed dozens of teams to trace COVID-19 patients and their close contacts.
The military region also built a fifth field hospital with a capacity of 500 beds and formed medical groups to help Laos and Cambodia fight the pandemic if requested. In border areas, the border guard force has maintained 1,906 medical checkpoints.
Regarding the vaccination for the military, the Department of Military Medicine has completed the first and second COVID-19 inoculation drives with tens of thousands of troops being vaccinated.
The third drive is being carried out with priority given to troops joining COVID-19 prevention and control in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.
The Military Medicine University has cooperated with other units to work out new testing methods to raise the effectiveness of COVID-19 testing.
Speaking at the conference, General San praised agencies and units throughout the military for their efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed out shortcomings that need to be addressed in the coming time
He added that although the pandemic is complicated, troops should not panic and should strictly observe COVID-19 prevention and control regulations, especially the “5K” regulations by the Health Ministry.
General San assigned the Border Guard Command to coordinate with local forces to strictly manage border areas to prevent illegal border crossings. Units located in pandemic-hit localities should actively prepare quarantine facilities and forces ready for use in case the pandemic becomes worse in the localities.
Meanwhile, military hospitals should carefully classify patients and arrange a separate area to treat suspected COVID-19 cases, contributing to preventing SARS-CoV-2 from spreading in hospitals.
Military Regions 7 and 9 should develop plans to build field hospitals and be ready to support localities in treating COVID-19 cases, San said.
Translated by Tran Hoai