Health ministry proposes to stop announcing Covid-19 cases daily

The Ministry of Health has proposed to stop reporting the number of Covid-19 cases daily to avoid "public panic" as the tally "does not reflect the country’s true disease situation".

In a report sent to the Prime Minister on Saturday, the ministry said while domestic infections have soared rapidly, the mortality rate deeply dropped as the country’s vaccination coverage is large.

In February, new cases tended to quickly surged in most cities and provinces. The daily average was 50,000-75,000 new cases, with the highest reaching up to 125,000. One of the reasons is that the Omicron variant spreads rapidly and has been prevalent across the country, especially in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Omicron has gradually replaced Delta.

However, according to the Ministry of Health, due to the high rate of vaccine coverage nationwide and good care for most vulnerable patients, the ratio of deaths to infections has decreased significantly. Specifically, the mortality rate of the past 30 days was 0.2%, down from the 1% of the previous month, the 0.9% recorded on February 1 and the 0.1% on March 3.

Compared to January, the number of community cases in February increased 198%, but deaths plunged 47%, hospitalizations decreased 24% and critical/severe cases dropped 43%.

The Ministry of Health also suggested to abolish the isolation requirement for those who come into close contact with Covid-19 cases, called F1, but are fully vaccinated.

It proposed F1 can self-monitor their health for 10 days on conditions that they are fully vaccinated, with the latest dose administered at least 14 days before or are Covid-19 patients recovering within three months. F1 are required to take PCR or ART test (antigen rapid test) on the fifth day from the point of time they come into close contact with an FO.

Regarding possibility to consider Covid-19 as an "endemic disease", the ministry said the World Health Organization (WHO) still considers Covid-19 as an pandemic state and is concerned that there will continue to be unpredictable variations of the virus. Many countries still have complicated disease developments and need to maintain a high level of pandemic response activities, it noted.

The ministry also argued that the ratios of severe infections and deaths have deeply dived, but the number of deaths recorded daily is still high, at around 100 cases/day. The daily death toll from Covid-19 is still higher than the peak annual death toll from rabies or dengue fever and measles.

It stressed Covid-19 in Vietnam is still transitioning from the pandemic phase to an "endemic disease". The rate of Covid-19 infections is not stable and there is a huge difference between localities.

“Moreover, the virus constantly mutates and displays new variants such as Alpha, Delta and Omicron. In the variants, there have continuously appeared sub-variants that can evade immunity, causing reinfection.

Therefore, it concluded, Vietnam should not consider Covid-19 as an "endemic disease" at this point of time. “The ministry will continue to coordinate with WHO and other international and national organizations to monitor the situation and update the virus’s evolution to advise the Prime Minister to treat Covid-19 as an endemic disease at an appropriate time”.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Thursday said Vietnam will learn from international experience to deploy suitable and efficient anti-pandemic measures and will move to “normalization” with Covid-19, “treating it as an endemic disease”.

About 78.9 million Vietnamese people or 81.8 percent of the population have been vaccinated at least once, according to latest official data. The figures for those inoculated two times are 76.1 million and 78.9 percent. Around 40.3 million people received the third dose or 41.8 percent of the population.