Be cautious but not panic about Covid-19!

New Covid-Omicron variant is 5 times more toxic than before?

Specifically, this information confirms: "The new Covid-Omicron variant has the ability to infect faster as well as evade immunity from vaccines better than current variants. The difference, causing death without being able to be detected, is that there is no cough, no fever...

New Covid-Omicron variant: 5 times more virulent than Delta variant, so of course it has a higher mortality rate. It takes less time to get to a serious condition, and sometimes there are no symptoms before it becomes serious.

In fact, some patients infected with the new Covid -Omicron variant do not have fever or pain, but report pneumonia on X-rays. This means that the virus will spread directly to the lungs, leading to rapid respiratory failure, due to dangerous acute inflammation of the respiratory tract, with severe damage to the lungs caused by the virus.

Rapid nasal swab tests are often negative for the new Covid-Omicron variant, and thus there are increasing false negatives in nasopharyngeal swab tests...".

In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic showing signs of increasing again in recent days in our country, especially in Hanoi , the above information is making many people confused and worried.

However, a representative of the Department of Communications ( Ministry of Health ) confirmed that this is fake news. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health are also monitoring the BA4 and BA5 variants, but have not seen any information like the information spread on social networks. WHO has not issued any such warnings.

At the same time, the representative of the Department of Communications (Ministry of Health ) also advised people not to panic or worry about inaccurate information. However, in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic still continuing, people should not be subjective, need to comply with the recommendations of the health sector on disease prevention and control such as wearing masks, regularly disinfecting hands... to protect the health of themselves and the community.

The North has an increase in Covid-19 but it is still under control

At a press conference yesterday afternoon (April 13) to inform the press about the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, Professor, Dr. Phan Trong Lan, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health) stated that in the Northern region, there is an increase in Covid-19 cases, but the ratio of severe cases/infections has not changed. From April 1 to now, the number of severe cases out of the total number of infections is lower than in March.

"In the world , the dominant variant causing the Covid-19 epidemic is still Omicron with the characteristic of spreading quickly but there is no clear evidence of severe increase in cases. Places with severe increase in cases are due to the corresponding increase in the number of infections," Professor, Dr. Phan Trong Lan further explained.

Professor, Dr. Phan Trong Lan also gave an assessment that, although the number of cases has increased slightly, the epidemic is still under control, we are still at epidemic level 1 - all are green. This level is not only assessed on the number of cases, but also on severe cases, vaccine coverage and response to ensure treatment admission.

"Currently, the rate of severe/infectious cases has not increased significantly, even in Vietnam," said Professor, Dr. Phan Trong Lan, but also noted that subjects such as the elderly, people with underlying diseases, people with immunodeficiency, and pregnant women are susceptible to severe complications and are at risk of death when infected with Covid-19. Therefore, people need to comply with the Covid-19 vaccination schedule and adequate doses according to the instructions and recommendations of the Ministry of Health.

Don't panic but don't be subjective, need to proactively prevent

According to Professor, Dr. Phan Trong Lan, up to now, the Omicron sub-variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has appeared for 16 months with more than 500 different sub-variants. This variant is currently circulating in most places in the world and is dominant. Experts have found that this is a variant with fast spreading characteristics, but there is no clear evidence of severe cases.

“One thing to note is that the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing infection with the Omicron variant is still limited, but its ability to prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death is effective,” the Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine emphasized the role of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Obviously, Vietnam's epidemic prevention and control activities have been effective recently thanks to the promotion of vaccination. Therefore, people are subjective about epidemic prevention and control measures such as wearing masks and disinfecting - this is what increases the risk of infection.

In fact, the number of infections is currently concentrated mainly in the Northern region - where the seasons are changing. According to current statistics, the number of infections has increased by nearly 4 times compared to the previous week; partly due to the fact that the weather is changing seasons, humid and favorable for the development of the virus. Meanwhile, people's awareness, especially the wearing of masks in public places and medical facilities, is sometimes not guaranteed. In addition, the protective effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine also decreases over time...

Forecasting that SARS-CoV-2 will still exist and to prevent this from affecting life, preventive medicine experts emphasized that one of the important tasks to prevent and fight Covid-19 is to limit severe cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, especially in high-risk groups, and reduce the overload of the health system.

To do that, people need to increase Covid-19 vaccination - considering this an effective and consistent measure, especially for high-risk subjects, and vaccinating on schedule and with enough doses as recommended by the Ministry of Health. All subjects must be screened and vaccinated; in addition, there must be the participation of each citizen, especially those at high risk.

In particular, people need to continue to follow the 2K + vaccine recommendation, especially at medical facilities, public transport, crowded places, especially during the upcoming holidays... For high-risk groups, they need to proactively wear masks to protect themselves and avoid infection.

In addition, although the whole country is currently at level 1 - green, it is necessary to closely monitor when the epidemic situation changes to be able to respond promptly. Localities need to strengthen the review of the epidemic level and clearly announce it so that people know and prevent it, avoiding confusion and subjectivity of the people...

GRASSLAND (synthesis)

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