Hanoi (VNA) ꧙– Facing the dangerous and highly contagious Delta variant in the fourth wave of COVID-19, relevant agencies are strongly utilising technology as a useful tool for large-scale contact tracing, testing, and vaccination management.

Technology now forms part of the current principle for COVID-19 prevention and control, which is “5K (khau trang - wearing facemasks, khu khuan - disinfection, khoang cach - keeping distance, khong tu tap - no gathering, and khai bao y te - making health declaration) plus vaccine and technology”. It is expected to help the healthcare sector fight the pandemic more effectively and serve as a means for citizens to coordinate with authorities in COVID-19 prevention and control. Nguyen Truong Nam, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health (MoH)’s Information Technology Department, said in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the digital transformation era, IT has been increasingly applied to health care to better serve medical examination and treatment. He noted many technological solutions are being used concurrently to help with the COVID-19 combat such as telehealth systems, Bluezone and NCOVI apps, and the COVID-19 vaccination management platform that includes an e-health record application, a COVID-19 vaccination information portal, a national vaccination support system, and a medical command centre. Talking about the platform for COVID-19 vaccination management, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said this is the first time Vietnam has deployed such a national platform which can help obtain the “twin targets” of fast and mass vaccination, along with safety, effectiveness, and transparency to support management, supervision, and research activities. Echoing the view, Do Cong Anh, Deputy Director of the Authority of Information Technology Application at the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), said in the COVID-19 vaccination management platform, each people is granted a QR code and an e-health record. This QR code will not only assist the pandemic combat but also be helpful in carrying out services related to a digital government, digital economy, and digital society in the future, he added. Nam affirmed that the proactive, timely, and appropriate IT application will be useful for the battle against epidemics, especially when COVID-19 is spreading fast. Given this, the MoH has issued guidance for localities on IT application and coordinated with the MIC to deploy sets of IT application solutions to meet anti-pandemic requirements in the new context, the official remarked./.