Implementing Resolution No. 78/NQ-CP dated July 20, 2021 of the Government, Official Dispatch No. 969/TTg-KGVX dated July 17, 2021 of the Prime Minister on social distancing imposition for the pandemic prevention and control in certain localities and Directive No. 12-CT/TU dated July 22, 2021 of the Standing Board of the Party Committee of City on strengthening a number of measures to implement Directive No. 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister for COVID-19 prevention and control citywide;

Facing the extremely urgent situation due to the fast, strong and unpredictable development of the new virus strain Delta; to achieve the goal of protecting the life and health of the People at any cost, to prevent new infection cases, to minimize the number of deaths, protect the health system and the ability to treat and save patients, the People’s Committee of City directs to execute certain measures as follows:

1. Further strictly implement the measures directed by the People’s Committee of City under Official Dispatch No. 2279/UBND-VX dated July 8, 2021 and other documents since July 9, 2021.

2. Strengthen specific measures as follows:

2.1. Strengthen inspection, supervision and expedite the strict implementation of social distancing rules, especially person-to-person and family-to-family distance; rigorously comply with the requirements and regulations on the pandemic prevention and control:

a) The people are only allowed to leave their houses when there is a medical emergency, to buy essential food at places permitted by regulations and go to work at agencies, entities, enterprises that are allowed to operate as prescribed in Section 2.2 hereof.

b) Strengthen control in lockdown areas, quarantine areas:

- In respect of lockdown areas:

+ On the basis of assessing the location, population, number of infections and epidemiological risk factors, factors that affect the transmission, the local governments shall determine the appropriate lockdown scope (not too narrow to omit F0 and F1 individuals, but not too large to affect people's lives and activities).

+ Strictly follow the motto “person-to-person, family-to-family isolation”; absolutely no direct contact with households around.  The people are only allowed to leave their houses if there is a medical emergency. The local government shall bring essentials to every house or do groceries shopping on behalf of citizens.

+ Establish working groups in lockdown areas (hereinafter referred to as working groups), with the participation of police, military forces, youth volunteers, unions, and especially the teams in charge of monitoring and propagation of Covid-19 prevention and control in the community (hereinafter referred to as Covid-19 community teams) to strengthen management, supervision, and support of the implementation of regulations on social distancing between households in the lockdown areas.

The local government shall, in coordination with the police and military forces, regularly patrol and supervise if the citizens strictly follow the person-to-person distance rule, especially the residential areas in small, crowded, packed and high population density alleys.

+ Any organization or individual who wishes to provide food aid for the residents in these areas shall contact the working group for delivering it to each household; no resident has to go outside to receive the food aid in person. Assign the President of the People’s Committee of ward to direct the Covid-19 community team to cooperate with the Youth Volunteers of City and the Youth Union's volunteers to assist in coordinating and providing food for the residents in lockdown areas.

+ Take strict actions against violations; any gatherings or breach of distance rule in a locality, for any reason, shall lead to a strict sanction imposed on the head and relevant persons in that locality.

+ Periodically assess the level of safety in the lockdown area and promptly remove partial lockdown for sub-areas that meet safety conditions in order to relieve residents’ psychological stress and reduce pressure on the management forces of the lockdown area.

- In respect of quarantine areas: quarantined people must absolutely abide by the regulations, not to leave the room and not be in direct contact with other people (except for medical emergencies).

a) Strictly supervise home-quarantined F0 and F1 individuals:

For families with home-quarantined F0 and F1 individuals, strictly follow the instructions of the health sector, absolutely do not leave the house (except for medical emergencies); essential food will be supported and provided by the authorities to the door.

2.2. In respect of groups allowed to operate during the imposition of social distancing:

a) State agencies and units shall arrange officials and public employees to work online from home; only those following persons may work at offices: combat forces on duty, anti-pandemic forces on duty, staff on guard at offices, people who supply essential goods and services, handle confidential documents and perform other necessary tasks as required.  Stop all unnecessary meetings.  The specific number of employees working at the office shall be decided by the head of agency or unit and not more than 1/3 of the headcount to ensure the maintenance of the agency’s tasks and the direction of the City; consider alternate working days or alternate sessions of the day; particularly, the city’s armed forces and health sector still ensure full headcount to work, and the specific units shall send documents to the Department of Home Affairs to seek decision from the City’s People's Committee.

b) Banks and securities companies must operate at the level of maintaining minimum capacity to provide necessary services in a timely manner, especially for branches or transaction offices, which can operate alternately and arrange personnel to work on the premises in shifts, strictly abide by the distance rules; encourage the entities to follow the “three-on-site” model (eat, rest, sleep in place) to prevent the pandemic threats.

c) Providers of essential services: health  care (except for aesthetic activities in hospitals, polyclinics, specialized clinics), pharmaceuticals, food, catering for hospitals, quarantine areas, field hospitals which admit and treat Covid patients; enterprises which follow the three-on-site model; electricity, water, gas, postal, telecommunications, public sanitation, maintenance of urban traffic and infrastructure, transportation of essential goods; state treasury, funeral service; units which serve logistics in pandemic prevention and control; accommodation establishments (hotels) which provide accommodation for medical staff and quarantine for experts, and a number of other essential services regulated by competent authorities following the pandemic safety protocols.

Transport enterprises which transport essential goods to serve the people’s daily needs and the pandemic prevention and control; transport materials, finished products, equipment, and spare parts for production, import and export; logistics service providers; manufacturing enterprises which have registered and followed the pandemic safety protocols, strictly adhere to the follow the “three-on-site” model and "one route, two destinations" model;

The local governments are responsible for checking if the enterprises that are allowed to operate comply with the above-mentioned regulations; immediately stop operation and severely punish cases that do not meet the requirements of pandemic prevention and control.

d) Types of transport permitted to travel: water freight (maritime, inland waterways), ferry terminals, and wharves (Can Gio - Can Giuoc, Can Thanh - Thanh An, Thanh An - Thieng Lieng); road traffic:  state-owned vehicles, vehicles with QR codes allowed to travel into the City or through the City, cars, motorbikes, 2-wheelers of organizations and individuals belonging to state agencies (officials, public employees, workers), armed forces, vehicles for anti-pandemic purposes and official duty purposes; buses to transport municipal people to their hometowns as planned; shuttle buses for workers and experts of enterprises that follow the "one route, two destinations" model; taxis (licensed to operate by the Department of Transport) that carry essential goods for supermarkets and transport citizens to and from hospitals, medical centers and in case of necessity; motorbikes with delivery applications serving the transportation of essential goods (must follow the pandemic safety protocols - follow 5K rule) registered by the enterprises during the social distancing period; transport vehicle (licensed to operate or with a transport license from the High Command of City, Department of Health, hospitals, health facilities): (1) medical staff, health workers, people tasked with pandemic prevention and control, (2) people who finish their quarantine period in centralized quarantine areas, (3) COVID-19 patients, (4) people discharged from hospitals for COVID-19 treatment back to their places of residence.

dd) Food supply activities (like traditional markets) are only allowed to operate under the new model (under the guidance of the Department of Industry and Trade), with the scale reduced to about 30 per cent, only trade in food, foodstuffs and essential goods are permitted to operate; with strict regulations and rigorous control, ensuring an open, airy space with a barrier between buyers and sellers, with prices quoted and encourage sales in prepacked grocery bags, strictly enforce social distancing rules; business households should operate alternately on even-odd days to minimize the number of people in contact. Those who go shopping must follow 5K rule and check in/out the markets with QR codes for management and further data retrieval upon requests.

e) Urgent construction works or traffic works: only works that follow the “three-on-site” model or “one route, two destinations” model are allowed to execute. The investor shall take full responsibility for the pandemic prevention and control at construction sites.  Assign the Department of Construction and the Department of Transport to guide and coordinate with local authorities in checking the compliance at the construction sites, immediately stop and take actions against violations if the construction works fail to meet the pandemic safety protocols.

Businesses, agencies, units and organizations not mentioned in Section 2.2 of this document will temporarily suspend operations until further notice.  However, the entities may have employees/workers on guard to ensure fire safety and maintain information systems.

2.3. In respect of improvement of the efficiency of testing, treatment and vaccination:

a) Testing:

- Trace, quickly test, find F0 sources and isolate F1 early, avoid spreading in the community:   in a targeted manner, ensure efficiency and balance between human resources for preventive medicine and treatment in current period; promote the strengths of rapid antigen testing in extremely high-risk, high-risk areas, hot spots to quickly scan and separate suspected and infected cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus from the community. Furthermore, closely organize a team on duty 24/24 to receive information in each neighborhood and hamlet and promptly test people with symptoms, people with epidemiological factors (including in lockdown areas, high-risk areas or low-risk areas, etc.).

- Combine rapid antigen testing with guidance for temporary home isolation for people waiting for confirmation of PCR test results.

- Urgently complete the data entry to serve the analysis, forecast and proposes solutions suitable to the situation of the pandemic; roll out the return of test results via phone messages and health applications on smart phones.

b) Treatment:

- Improve treatment capacity, apply a combination of both eastern and western medicine; mobilize private health facilities to participate in treatment; strengthen the system of equipment and human resources to ensure that everything is under control in all situations; in which focus on mobilizing retired medical staff, herb doctors, religious dignitaries, Red Cross Society to participate in the pandemic prevention and control.

- Actively review, release statistics, grasp the available resources and ensure human resources; the list and number of equipment, consumables, medical oxygen, personal protective equipment, essential drugs; testing equipment, test kits and other necessary conditions to ensure readiness to respond to complicated pandemic developments.  All treatment facilities must arrange initial emergency beds with enough oxygen to treat patients who develop more severe symptoms before being transferred to a higher-level hospital.

- Reduce the workload on the health system, implement "multi-storey tower" model in COVID-19 treatment, which strengthens management of treatment and monitoring at home; urgently implement isolation, monitoring, testing and strict control at home for F0 and F1 individuals in accordance with the regulations of the health sector with the goal of preventing infection in the community and giving the patients care, encouragement, guide, and share in order for them to be in the best of mental health and recovers health soon.

- Effectively perform the monitoring of F0 individuals at centralized quarantine facilities in Thu Duc city and districts, field hospitals for COVID-19 treatment and promote the rapid response teams of districts and Thu Duc city to promptly take quick actions when any patient develops more severe symptoms; in which the focus is on instructing patients to be able to monitor their own health together with medical staff, helping to reduce the burden on the health system.

- Request the Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control of City, the hospitals for Covid treatment of districts, Thu Duc city to strictly update information related to testing, quarantine and treatment of COVID-19 patients so that the City 115 Emergency Center has complete, accurate and timely data to help manage the transfer and emergency treatment of patients as soon as possible in order to minimize fatality rates.

c) Vaccination:

- Focus on implementing the Phase 5 of the vaccination plan to ensure safety, fairness and transparency, with priority given to the elderly (over 65 years old) and people with underlying diseases; with the goal of safe injection, not running after achievements, strictly following the social distance rule.

- Speed ​​up the negotiation and purchase of vaccines, striving to have two thirds of the city's population vaccinated by the first quarter of 2022.

2.4. In respect of supply of sufficient essential goods to the people, strict compliance with the regulations on social distance under Directive No. 16/CT-TTg:

a) Assign Department of Industry and Trade to

- Direct price stabilization distribution systems and businesses to continue to increase their storage and sales capacity, ensure the supply of sufficient essential food to the residents in the city; furthermore, continue to promote sales support channels and online shopping channels through major e-commerce platforms to increase goods supply points to the residents.

- Execute a suitable goods supply plan based on the current pandemic situation and developments; support essential goods and food for districts, Thu Duc city to promptly distribute to the residents in quarantine areas, lockdown areas and field hospitals.

- Regularly monitor and grasp the operation situation of enterprises producing and providing essential goods (food, foodstuffs; gasoline, oil; electricity, water, gas supply; logistics; medical device production); proactively coordinate with departments, agencies and sectors of city to promptly support and remove difficulties for enterprises in the process of operation; report and propose the People's Committee of City to direct issues beyond their authority.

- Inspect and guide the operation of traditional markets and goods supply points as well as compliance with the pandemic safety protocols by the People's Committees of districts, Thu Duc city.

- Coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications and related units to build IT applications for traditional market activities (such as the model of "Switchboard to book groceries shopping schedule", "App to book groceries shopping schedule for residents" to roll out in districts and Thu Duc city.

b) Assign Department of Finance to

Take charge and cooperate with the Department of Industry and Trade, the Department of Planning and Investment in giving the counsel to the People's Committee of City on a mechanism to support capital for businesses that distribute, produce essential goods, and manufacture medical devices so as to buy and stockpile medical goods and supplies for the prevention and control of the pandemic and the need for food and necessities of the City’s residents.

2.5. In respect of supporting employees and residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic

The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall continue to accelerate the disbursement of social security packages according to Resolution No. 09/2021/NQ-HDND dated June 25, 2021 of the City People's Council for employees who do not enter into employment contracts; the employees who suspend employment contracts or take unpaid leave; employees whose employment contracts are terminated but are not eligible for unemployment benefits; individual business households that are suspended from operation at the request of competent authorities.  Urgently review, propose and provide support for self-employed workers who are not eligible for support under Resolution No. 09/2021/NQ-HDND with the view that “no one is left behind, no one lacks food or clothes".

Provide support in a timely, public and transparent manner to eligible beneficiaries as prescribe din Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP dated July 1, 2021 of the Government on certain policies to support employees and employers facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Prime Minister's Decision No. 23/2021/QD-TTg dated July 7, 2021 on the implementation of certain policies to support employees and employers in difficulty due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Provide appropriate, timely and convenient support payment methods; ensure the good implementation of regulations on prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic.

2.6. In respect of maintenance of smooth traffic, security and order, and fire safety citywide

a) Assign the City Police to:

- Grasp the developments of the pandemic, proactively prevent and avoid complicated situations; proactively develop plans to ensure political security, social order and safety, and fire safety in the localities; especially focusing on absolute safety protection and fire safety at field hospitals, lockdown areas, quarantine areas.

- Take charge and cooperate with departments and agencies to organize city-level checkpoints, in which the inspection (through patrol and control activities on the route) is only carried out to vehicles showing signs of breaches of anti-pandemic and traffic safety regulations and law; do not carry out anti-pandemic inspection on all traffic routes for means of transport of goods with QR codes issued by the Department of Transport of the province or central-affiliated city to facilitate the circulation of goods.

- Direct the local police to give counsel on setting up the checkpoints in districts and Thu Duc city and patrol teams to control the entire closed area; resolutely take strict actions against  organizations and individuals who violate regulations on prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, Directive No. 16/CT-TTg dated March 31, 2020 of the Prime Minister, Directive No. 12- CT/TU dated July 22, 2021 of the Standing Board of the Party Committee of City or taking advantage of the pandemic situation to commit crimes or distort, incite, and sabotage authorities in the city.

- Effectively implement the pandemic prevention and control practices in the entire City Police force and ensure the forces and means to participate in the pandemic prevention and control of the City.

b) Assign the High Command of City to

Lead the effective implementation of measures to strengthen pandemic prevention and control; promote the role of taking charge and cooperating in operating centralized quarantine facilities and field hospitals for treatment of Covid-19 to ensure strict, safe, effective, and prevent cross-infection and infection to support staff in the quarantine areas, coordinate the task forces to spray chemicals in the lockdown areas; organize convoys to transport goods to serve the people of the city where necessary.  Work closely with the police force to be ready to handle any situation arising. Furthermore, guide and inspect the performance of tasks of the Military Command of Thu Duc city and districts in advising on the performance of tasks at centralized quarantine facilities for F0 individuals in the area.

c) Assign the Department of Transport to issue expeditiously documents guiding means of transport and cargo transportation in and out of the city or through the city. Furthermore, continue to implement the issuance of vehicle identification certificates (with QR codes) to facilitate the transportation of essential goods and goods for production and business during the implementation of Directive No. 16/ CT-TTg.

d) The anti-pandemic checkpoints under management of the People's Committees of Thu Duc city and districts: setting up checkpoints, executing flexible and scientific methods of patrol and control, absolutely avoiding traffic jams; facilitate means of transport with a vehicle identification certificate (QR code) to travel.

2.7. In respect of propagation and IT application in the pandemic prevention and control

a) Propagation:

- Focus on promoting extensive propagation, thoroughly execute the motto "walk to every alley, knock on every door, check every person", distribute leaflets guiding the social distancing and anti-pandemic measures.

- Further raise people's awareness about the city's pandemic situation, the sense of strict observance of social distancing rules, knowledge of disease transmission mechanisms, knowledge of health care and keeping a calm attitude in the face of situations.  Concurrently, diversify and change forms of propagation such as leaflets, megaphone trucks, mobile phone applications, etc.  to promptly give information to people, especially households. families in residential areas, lockdown areas.

- Expeditiously disseminate to each household the City's instructions on: (1) What people living in the lockdown area need to know; (2) Things to do when F1 is home-quarantined; (3) Early discharge and isolation for treatment at the place of residence of asymptomatic F0 individuals.

- The Department of Information and Communications shall cooperate with the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of City in effectively orienting the propaganda, strengthen and proactively providing timely and accurate information to the media agencies, orient the public opinions.  Coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Public Security and the City Police in timely and effective handling of social media crisis and strictly handle violations that distort, incite, sabotage and prejudice the anti-pandemic practices.

b) IT applications in the pandemic prevention and control

- Request the heads and directors of departments, agencies, socio-political organizations, Presidents of People's Committees of districts, Thu Duc city to deploy QR codes for electronic health declaration at all offices, units and public places in the areas. Request all officials, public employees and employees in the political system and authorities at all levels to fully make the electronic health declaration; as well as propagate and disseminate instructions to families and relatives to make electronic health declarations.

- Request the Department of Information and Communications to continue to maintain, improve and promote the effectiveness of IT applications in use; improve data analysis to serve the direction and anti-pandemic practices, with more specific identification that which area tends to be high-risk, which area where cross-infection occurs, especially in the lockdown area, in order to promptly localize and suppress the spread of the pandemic.

- Coordinating with VNPT of Ho Chi Minh City to deploy a channel to receive and process information to support people facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic through Portal 1022.

- Coordinate with the Department of Health, VNPT of Ho Chi Minh City to set up a health care consultation channel for COVID-19 prevention and control via Portal 1022.

- Build a website to provide a connection platform for the needs of people in quarantine areas, field hospitals with sponsors and social resources.

- Establish connection with the health declaration system of the Ministry of Health so that neighboring provinces, cities and Ho Chi Minh City can use the test results via QR codes together.

- Complete social resource management software to support the Vaccine Fund.

3. The People's Committees of Thu Duc city, districts:

- Develop a detailed plan, mobilize all social resources, assign the right people, clear jobs, clear responsibilities, and organize strict and effective implementation of measures to strengthen Directive 16-CT/ TTg.  Promote the role of the grassroots core forces to promote extensive propagation in various forms, close to the actual situation of the current pandemic context to mobilize the people to voluntarily and rigorously implement the anti-pandemic rules, strictly implement social distancing measures throughout the city, especially in the lockdown areas, centralized quarantine areas, houses in small, crowded, packed, and high population density alleys; grasp thorough understanding of and strictly implement regulations on vaccination; isolation measures of F0, F1 individuals.  Handle humanitarian issues in the localities and treatment areas. Reinforce inspection, supervision, promptly detect positive factors, typical, dynamic, creative organizations and individuals who overcome difficulties and are brave... to encourage and reward; at the same time correct and rectify inadequacies; resolutely handle violations caused by subjectivity and lack of sense of responsibility, affecting the effectiveness of anti-pandemic practices.

- Direct, inspect and supervise the role of heads of Party Committees and People's Committees of wards, communes and townships in formulating detailed implementation plans, ensuring that the directives of all levels are organized and implemented promptly to each neighborhood, hamlet and household; intensify and promote the role of the community Covid-19 teams to inspect and supervise the strict implementation of regulations in the lockdown areas and centralized quarantine areas in the localities, especially supervise families with home quarantined F0 and F1 individuals and strictly enforce and punish violators of regulations; at the same time, know thoroughly people and households with F0, F1 individuals who are poor, disadvantaged, lonely, disabled, religious, ethnic... including addicts, in order to take appropriate support measures; carefully and closely coordinate the care and supply of food and essential goods to people in the localities; assigned 24/24 hotlines to promptly handle the claims and feedbacks of the people.

4. Time to implement the above provisions: from now until the end of August 1, 2021 under the direction of the Prime Minister in Official Dispatch No. 969/TTg-KGVX dated July 17, 2021.

Propose the heads of the Departments, agencies, the President of the People's Committee of Thu Duc city, districts and enterprises in the city to focus on implementing the above issues; promptly report difficulties and problems arising in the implementation process; be held accountable to before the President of the People's Committee of City if there are cases of non-observance of regulations in the assigned areas or fields./.

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