Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairs a virtual meeting among the government’s standing members, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and 63 cities and provinces to look back on COVID-19 response over the past year. (Photo: VNA)

Chaired by Phuc, the virtual meeting was held among the government’s standing members, the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control and 63 cities and provinces to look back on COVID-19 response over the past year.

Vietnam has accurately assessed how dangerous the COVID-19 was since the outset of the pandemic, activated the national disease prevention system in time and swiftly adopted solutions suitable to the pandemic development and the nation’s capacity, the PM said. The successful containment of COVID-19 has strengthened people’s confidence in the Party’s sound leadership and the State’s policies, he added.

He expressed his sincere thanks to all Vietnamese people, both at home and overseas, and all-level Party organisations and administrations for collective efforts in overcoming hardship and fighting COVID-19.

The Government leader moved on to highlight lessons learned from the COVID-19 response, with international cooperation deemed as very important. Vietnam has actively proposed initiatives and responsibly engaged in the international community’s collaborative endeavour in addressing global challenges, he noted, citing as an example the United Nations General Assembly’s endorsement of Vietnam’s initiative of making December 27 as the International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.

The PM asked all ministries, governmental agencies and provincial-level People’s Committees to continue rigorously enforcing orders made by the government and the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control alongside instructions by the Ministry of Health and keeping up guard against the novel coronavirus. Welfare assistance must also continue to be given to affected enterprises and people, he said.

Phuc urged the Ministry of Health and localities to provide safe COVID-19 vaccination to people, consider imports of COVID-19 vaccines from different sources, and speed up domestic vaccine production. Vietnam must roll out a home-grown COVID-19 vaccine in 2022 at the latest, he said.

Vietnam confirmed 2,560 COVID-19 cases as of March 17 morning, of which 2,186 cases, or 85.4 percent, had been given the all-clear, while 339 are under treatment and 35 were dead, according to the Ministry of Health./. VNA