PM chairs meeting of steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control

He said the meeting aimed to review the COVID-19 prevention and control performance and set out tasks to control the pandemic and other infectious diseases in the New Year holidays to “not leave anyone behind”.

According to the committee, as of December 19, Vietnam has recorded more than 11.5 million COVID-19 infections. Over 10.6 million patients have recovered from the disease, and more than 43,100 people have died.

In the last 30 days, there have been 12,008 new cases, declining by 23.5% compared to 30 days earlier.

As of December 18, Vietnam has administered more than 265 million COVID-19 vaccines. Roughly 100% of people from the age of 12 have completed the first two doses.

The proportion of over-18-year-old people receiving the third and the fourth doses has reached 80% and 86.8%, respectively.

About 92.3% of children between 9 and 12 years old have received the first dose. As many as 72% of children between 9 and 12 have been administered the second dose.

State agencies and localities have distributed VND87 trillion to over 55.6 million citizens and nearly 1 million employers affected by COVID-19.

Regarding implementing Prime Minister's Decision No 08/2022/QD-TTg on supporting employees with house rental fees, by November 30, localities have distributed more than 3.74 trillion VND to over 5.2 million employees and 122,991 employers.

The steering committee predicted the pandemic would get complicated with new variants. In particular, the seasonal changes will cause more respiratory diseases, leading to various outbreaks simultaneously.

The New Year season involves a high intensity of travelling that will also create favourable conditions for illnesses to spread, especially among children and the elderly with underlying conditions.

PM Chinh ordered participants to give comments on the COVID-19 treatment and vaccination, especially for children, as well as problems that the steering committee needs to solve.