Responding to VnExpress on June 30, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, Director of the Department of Health Environmental Management (Ministry of Health), said that in the coming time, based on a pilot assessment in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Health will request

According to a representative of the Ministry of Health, quarantining F1 at home has some advantages for the locality, such as reducing the load on centralized quarantine areas.

For F1s whose homes meet the set conditions, home quarantine helps them minimize the risk of cross-infection when having to quarantine in overloaded facilities or quarantine areas converted from schools.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong, Director of Department of Health Environmental Management.

However, Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong also raised some difficulties.

On the other hand, F1 quarantine at home requires very close supervision by local authorities.

The Ministry of Health’s instructions state that the condition for F1 to be quarantined at home is to have a separate house (villa, townhouse, independent house);

After more than 4 months of implementing quarantine regulations for children, it has been shown that these conditions are feasible, no infection has occurred, and currently no locality has reported any difficulties encountered during the implementation process.

According to her, after the pilot, the Ministry of Health and Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee will summarize the problems, shortcomings, and inadequacies in reality to amend and supplement instructions and officially apply.

Agreeing with the view of soon replicating F1 home quarantine nationwide, Associate Professor Nguyen Viet Nhung, Director of the Central Lung Hospital, wondered about the regulation requiring people to have independent private houses, `because few people can afford it.`

Mr. Nhung believes that the most important purpose of F1 quarantine, whether concentrated or at home, is to avoid the risk of spreading the disease to others.

At the same time, the health sector needs to expand allowing F1 quarantine at home to apartment buildings.

Medical center staff in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City came to give medical declarations to people in the blockade and home quarantine area in February 2021.

Before the pilot in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Health instructed some cases to be quarantined at home, such as: F2 quarantined at home, place of residence, from March 2020.

From the beginning of 2021, the Ministry allows children under 5 years old to quarantine at home;

At the end of May 2021, the Ministry agreed for the two provinces of Bac Giang and Bac Ninh to apply the F1 centralized quarantine facility right at boarding houses (dormitories, worker boarding houses).

A week later, in early June, the Ministry of Health gave more specific instructions, in the case of F1 workers in an overcrowded boarding house, send half to a centralized quarantine facility.

During the epidemic outbreak from the end of April, Bac Giang applied this model in Nui Hieu village (Quang Chau commune, Viet Yen district), where nearly 10,000 workers gathered at a dense density.

However, according to Mr. Le Anh Duong, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Bac Giang province, the model of isolating workers at the boarding house is not as effective as expected.

Workers were transferred from Nui Hieu village, Quang Chau commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province, early June 2021.

During the late May and early June period, Bac Giang recorded hundreds of cases every day.

Therefore, Mr. Le Anh Duong believes that to effectively quarantine F1 at home, it is necessary to apply technology, such as a positioning bracelet for monitoring.

However, Mr. Duong still worries that if F1 quarantines at home less, then the locality will have enough surveillance force;

The proposal to isolate F1 at home was raised by Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son at the meeting of the Ho Chi Minh City Anti-Epidemic Steering Committee on June 25.

Two days after June 27, the Ministry of Health issued instructions and regulations for F1 to be quarantined at home for 28 days.

F1 quarantine at a closed motel in Bac Giang

Quarantining workers at a boarding house in Bac Giang.

Write Tuan