Two local women are seen using the Bluezone health declaration app. The national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control recently asked ministries, agencies and local authorities to step up efforts in deploying technology measures to combat Covid-19 – PHOTO: MOIC

HCMC – The national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control recently asked ministries, agencies and local authorities to step up efforts in deploying technology measures to combat Covid-19 that is raging in many parts of Vietnam.

The Ministry of Information and Communications on May 6 sent a dispatch to the provincial Information and Communications Departments nationwide and local authorities, requesting them to check the local quarantine centers to ensure quarantinees are strictly supervised.

These centers must be equipped with an adequate number of security cameras to monitor the compliance of those under quarantine with Covid-19 preventive measures. The cameras must be constantly operational and stay connected to a monitoring system, as required by the ministry.

The ministry also asked two local mobile carriers, namely Viettel and VNPT, to jointly develop the monitoring system and coordinate with the Departments of Information and Communciations to link the cameras in the quarantine centers to the system. The connection was done before May 10, said the ministry.

Aside from installing a sufficient amount of cameras in State-run quarantine centers, many localities allowed students to stay home and use online teaching and learning methods to ensure their safety.

Leaders of the Departments of Education and Training and education centers were asked to instruct education facilities to install a mobile app called Antoancovid and evaluate their Covid-19 safety levels and update the results on the platform twice a week.

The education ministry recently issued Circular No.9 stipulating regulations on managing and organizing online classes for high school students. The issuance of the Circular is expected to enable local schools to better arrange online classes amid the pandemic.

Apart from that, the Ministry of Information and Communications demanded that provinces and cities throughout the country continue to encourage local people to install and use the contact tracing mobile app called Bluezone to assist with prompt contact tracing activities.

Also, local authorities have to issue contact tracing guidelines when locally-infected cases are detected via the app and QR code scanning needs to be used to record the arrival and departure history of people in public places or amidst large gatherings.