Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan has said that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh would chair a meeting of the National SteeringCommittee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control this weekend to deliberate thedowngrading of COVID-19 from its current placement in Class A infectiousdiseases down to Class B.

Lan told the National Assembly that on May 29 that the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) announced that COVID-19 no longer constituted aPublic Health Emergency of International Concern, the designation that wasattached to the viral disease more than three years ago, but the pandemic isnot over yet.

In accordance with the guidance of the Government leader, theMinistry of Health was also coordinating with other ministries and agencies toreview the legal regulations, consult the experience of other countries, andreview practical measures for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Vietnam,Lan noted.

The Ministry of Health had taken the lead in working with otherministries and agencies to build a dossier to reclassify infectious diseasesfrom Class A to Class B, she said.

Vietnam classifies infections into three classes A, B, and C,mostly according to the severity.

Group A includes highly dangerous infectious diseases that canspread rapidly, widely, and have a high death rate or the cause of the diseaseis not yet known.

Examples are Polio, Avian influenza A-H5N1, Plague, Hemorrhagicfever caused by Ebola, Lassa or Marburg viruses, West Nile fever, Yellow fever,Cholera, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and new dangerous infectiousdiseases that have newly emerged with unknown/unclear pathogens.

Class B includes dangerous infectious diseases that can be rapidlytransmittable and fatal, which include Adenovirus disease, Humanimmunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS),Influenza, Rabies, Whooping cough (pertussis), Tuberculosis, Shigellosis,Mumps, Dengue fever, Malaria, Measles, Hand-foot-mouth disease, Anthrax,Smallpox, Typhoid fever, Rubella, Viral hepatitis, Viral encephalitis, andZika, etc.

And Class C embraces less dangerous and not rapidly transmittableinfectious diseases, which include chlamydia.

The Minister of Health has the competence to revise the list ofinfectious diseases in each class.

Tran Dac Phu, former Director of the Preventive MedicineDepartment and Senior Advisor to the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre(under the Ministry of Health), has told local media that the COVID-19situation in Vietnam is still under control, with the majority of new caseshaving mild or no symptoms, and the healthcare system is not being overloaded.

The most severe and fatal cases are still concentrated among thosewith underlying health problems, the elderly, the unvaccinated, and those withcompromised immune systems.

These individuals are also at risk of developing more severeillness and death from other infectious diseases, such as influenza, not justCOVID-19, according to Phu.

When these individuals contract diseases that weaken their immunesystems, they become vulnerable to other diseases, leading to more severeillness and death.

Vietnam has already moved on to flexible, safe and effectiveadaptation and control of COVID-19 strategy since late 2021, thanks to the highvaccination rate.

Although we have not yet reclassified COVID-19 from Group A toGroup B, Phu observed, many activities have returned to normal, such asreopening borders, lifting travel restrictions, organising meetings and eventswithout mandatory testing, and loosening quarantine measures to ensure economicactivities and social welfare.

However, Phu stressed that COVID-19 still has its uniquecharacteristics as the WHO has not declared the end of this pandemic and thebody still advises countries to be cautious and shift from emergency responseto sustainable and long-term disease control strategies.

Therefore, in terms of policy and planning for COVID-19 preventionand control, Phu underlined the need to closely monitor the epidemiologicalsituation to have appropriate responses, without being taken by surprise, tocontrol the disease in all situations while minimising costs, protecting thehealth and rights of the people.

"It is especially important to note that disease surveillanceefforts, personal prevention measures, vaccination, communication, andprotecting vulnerable groups should be prioritised," the health expertsaid.

According to the Ministry of Health's statistics, Vietnamhas so far recorded over 11.6 million COVID-19 infections, with total recoverieslogged at 10.63 million.

Over 43,200 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, about 0.4% ofthe total caseload.

More than 266.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have beenadministered across the country./.