The conference was co-held by the State Committee on Overseas Vietnamese Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the HCMC Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs.
During the event, Vietnamese experts aboard discussed strategies for confronting the COVID-19 pandemic and shared experience in conducting large-scale COVID-19 testing and control the pandemic in France and Poland.
“4 weeks for 4 goals” strategy
Speaking at the conference, Doctor Vu Ngoc Khue, a Vietnamese citizen in the U.S., shared an anti-COVID strategy called “4 weeks for 4 goals.”
He assumed that there are three anti-pandemic front-line forces, namely local people, medical staff in hospitals, medical centers and quarantine areas, and military and police forces. Four weeks are enough to prevent the spread of the virus into the community and decontaminate the environment.
Meanwhile, the doctor set four goals, including treating COVID-19 patients and minimizing the death rate, containing the spread of the virus as soon as possible, disinfecting residential areas, and reopening businesses but still under strict public health safety rules.
Addressing the event, Tran Ngoc Phuc, President of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Japan, talked about his strategy for using ventilators for COVID-19 patients.
According to Phuc, authorities at all levels should look for low-price ventilators; therefore, they can buy more ventilators, meeting the sudden increase in the number of patients. In addition, authorities should provide more CPAP machines and oxygen generators for people quarantined at home to reduce overload in hospitals.
Develop specific plans in case of worsen condition
With much work experience in several hospitals in France, Doctor Vo Toan Trung stressed that the government must be ready to deal with the worst situation when the number of COVID-19 cases increases to the level beyond the capacity of the health sector. The medical force should be divided into three groups to take turns to look after COVID-19 patients. Also he recommended that all industrial parks should be isolated to maintain production while workers in other sectors should work at home. During the social distancing period, the municipal authorities should conduct COVID-19 vaccination campaigns for the locals to quickly control the pandemic.
For his part, Vice President of the Vietnamese Association in Poland Tran Trong Hung said that the government should launch hotlines to instruct people on how to deal with symptoms of COVID-19, meanwhile each household should equip themselves with a basic healthcare kit, including medicines, a thermometer, a blood pressure monitor, and an oxygen generator.
Concluding the conference, Vice Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc expressed his deep thanks for the valuable ideas and experience of overseas Vietnamese experts, hoping that the experts will continue supporting Vietnam in implementing anti-COVID applications, sharing their experience in COVID-19 prevention and control, contributing to containing the pandemic.
Translated by Quynh Oanh