Implementing the Prime Minister’s epidemic prevention strategy including: “5K + vaccine + technology”, two hot spots of the COVID-19 epidemic, Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, have actively taken the initiative in information technology (IT) to fight back the COVID-19. How effective is the implementation of IT in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, a reporter of Health & Life newspaper had an interview with Dr. Tran Quy Tuong – Director of Information Technology Department.
Reporter: “Sir, how is the implementation of information technology application in the prevention of COVID-19 epidemic currently being implemented by people in hot spots such as Bac Ninh and Bac Giang?”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quy Tuong: “In Bac Ninh, the Department of Information and Communications advised the Provincial Steering Committee to set up an Information Analysis Team to analyze data sources, propose tracing, testing and risk of spreading assessment, timely recommendations in disease prevention. The messaging system was built to quickly and promptly implement the instructions of the Provincial Steering Committee to members of the community COVID Team”.
Strengthen propaganda and mobilize people in the province to install, use and declare health condition on Vietnam Health Declaratioin, NCOVI, Bluezone applications. At the same time, instructing agencies, People’s Committees of districts, towns and cities to create and scan QR codes and medical declarations at offices, organizations, public areas, etc.
Mr. Quy Tuong checks medical declaration by QR Code in Bac Ninh City.
Bac Ninh province has nearly 580,000 people have been installing and currently using Bluezone application on smartphones, accounting for more than 42% of the province’s population, ranking 2nd among 63 provinces and cities nationwide; The province has 10,519 establishments that make up QR codes from the health declaration system for people to check in with the Bluezone application.
According to statistics from the Medical Declaration Management Information System, the total number of medical declarations in Bac Ninh up to June 1, 2021 is 1,059,179, of which from 1st of May, 2021 to 1st of June 6, 2021 is 824,862 declarations.
For workers, the Management Board of Industrial Parks has coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications to develop information management software for all workers in industrial parks, helping to manage, monitor and trace quickly when there is a case in the industrial zone; and provide timely data for direction and administration.
In Bac Giang, on May 22, 2021, with the support of the IT Department of the Ministry of Health, the province established an electronic monitoring and tracing team consisting of 15 members from the Department of Health, the Provincial Center for Disease Control. and Provincial Union. The members of the group have been granted accounts and trained to exploit data from the Medical Declaration Management Information System for monitoring and tracing. As of June 1, 2021, the team has made 3,976 calls to people to declare health condition with symptoms or have epidemiological factors, instruct people on appropriate epidemic prevention measures for each person or transfer information to the commune and district levels for verification and direct handling the situation. Especially based on the system’s information, the team discovered 66 F1 cases currently isolated at home and transferred the information to the district level for management according to regulations.
As of May 31, 2021, Bac Giang province had 480,306 people have been installing and using the Bluezone application on smartphones, accounting for 26.63% of the province’s population, ranking 9th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide.
Reporter: With medical declarations showing evidence of epidemiology, how will the health sector handle it, sir?
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quy Tuong: For medical declarations with symptoms (fever/cough/difficulty breathing…) or epidemiological factors (contact with sick patients, returning from epidemic areas…), medical staff will call directly to the people, verifying information and giving appropriate instructions. In necessary cases, commune health workers will directly come to the place to handle.
For some hot spots such as Bac Ninh and Bac Giang, there are information groups established including staff from the Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control of the province (CDC), the Department of Information and Communication… the task of the team is to call people directly to verify the medical declaration information with symptoms or epidemiological factors; verify people’s complaints. In necessary direct handling cases, the team will send information to the district and commune levels for processing and monitoring.
Reporter: According to the Ministry of Health, if there is 1 case of F0, more than 100 F1 cases must be isolated (the national average). If you want to reduce the number of F1 cases, you can only detect F0 cases early, what suggestions do you have in implementing IT to trace F0 as soon as possible?
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Quy Tuong: For the current epidemic prevention and control, quickly tracing F0, making a list of F1, F2 is very important to control the spread of the disease. For areas with a small number of cases, medical staff and other forces can trace, but when the number of cases increases, there will not be enough human resources to directly trace at the locations. So, currently, the technology solution is the optimal solution.
Citizens are making medical declarations by scanning QR codes
The Ministry of Health has issued Decision No. 2666/QD-BYT on the issuance of Guidelines for the use of medical declaration and close contact detection applications for COVID-19 disease prevention and control, one of the the most important purpose of this decision is to support the implementation of electronic medical declarations to help manage, monitor health, and detect cases early to effectively serve the prevention of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Accordingly, people with smartphones need to install and use medical declaration applications to make electronic medical declarations and generate QR codes. When going to a public place, you must install the proximity detection application (Bluezone) and turn on the Bluetooth. People refer to medical isolation or post-quarantine medical supervision must install a medical declaration application and a close contact detection application. When going to places where medical declaration is required, give the QR code to the control staff to scan or use your phone to scan the QR code themselves at that point. Heads of agencies, organizations, establishments, locations… are responsible for controlling information of people entering and leaving and providing information to competent authorities in case of necessity.
If people, state agencies and organizations strictly follow the instructions of the Ministry of Health, when there is a case of F0, the tracking and listing of F1, F2 will be very quick and timely.
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