The request was made by Senior Lieutenant General Tran Don, Deputy Defense Minister and Head of the ministry’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, at a video-conference on May 28 to introduce urgent measures to prevent the pandemic.
The Deputy Defense Minister expressed delight at the military’s outcomes in disease response over the past time. Accordingly, all the agencies and units have strictly exercised resolutions and directives of higher levels and taken drastic measures to prevent the disease while effectively carrying out military and defense missions.
Reports delivered at the event said that although the military has not recorded any COVID-19 cases, the force has paid much attention to the fight to prevent troops from being infected with the virus, as some overseas Vietnamese quarantined in military units have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Since the beginning of this month, the Ministry of National Defense and the ministry’s Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control have issued important documents on continuing tough measures to prevent the pandemic in the new period. The Military Medical Department gave guidelines on promoting disease prevention and control in the new stage and preventing COVID-19 infection in quarantine areas and military medical establishments. Considering disease prevention a key political mission, units in the whole military have rotated COVID-19 prevention and control troops to ensure their good health for combat readiness and disease fighting missions.
Regarding information dissemination, the reports briefed that thousands of articles have been published by military media and press agencies to help troops embrace and strictly exercise directives of the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, the military medical sector has maintained strong measures to prevent COVID-19 infection in defense agencies and military units. So far, the whole military has quarantined 68,307 citizens and plans to receive an additional 3,000 people returning from pandemic-hit countries in late May and early June. Border troops have been doing a good job of guarding at border paths and border gates to prevent illegal immigration. From May 7 to 26, border guard forces completed entry-exit procedures for 98,000 people.
As the pandemic has entered a new period, General Don asked units in the whole military to embrace directives of higher levels on COVID-19 prevention and control and promote the dissemination of information related to the disease. He added that agencies and units should review their disease containment work and promote production to ensure troops’ health.
Translated by Tran Hoai