The use of digital technologies in COVID-19 prevention and control in Vietnam

SUPPORTING IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC CONTROL

One  of  the  reasons  that  helps  Vietnam  controlling COVID-19 effectively is that the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control (COVID-19 National Steering Committee), the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information and Communications have made a strong collaboration with big ICT enterprises to make and deploy digital applications that helps to control the pandemic. These digital applications have become effective tools to help government authorities and citizens proactively prevent the pandemic from wide spreading.

The NCOVI application was developed by the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Health to provide citizens an online tool to declare medical information and an official channel to allow quick access to the latest pandemic-related information.

In detail, with the access to NCOVI application through web or mobile application, citizens may declare health status for themselves and their family members at anytime, anywhere. Another important function of the NCOVI application is to declare for potential risk factors. People traveling from pandemic areas, been in physical contact with infected or suspicious cases, need to declare to receive assistance from health authorities timely. By providing daily health information updates with COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, coughing, sore throat, shortness of breath, fatigue,... users could actively monitor their health status and get advices from health authorities to take appropriate action to protect themselves and their families. On the other hand, health agencies may quickly identify and locate suspicious cases, group and quarantine suspected area, and propose effective plans to protect the community.

NCOVI application has helped authorities to record over 60,000 cases with high risk of infection, verified and validated about 40,000 cases and quarantined at home 15,000 cases. Citizen's feedbacks and reports about COVID-19 pandemic have been accepted and resolved in a very short period of time.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam health declaration application developed by Viettel Group has been deployed for immigrants to Vietnam to declare their health status. This application supports 12 languages and recorded hundreds of thousand declarations. In addition, the application is integrated into the National Health Declaration System to assist the COVID-19 National Steering Committee to have full information about schedules of both domestic and international tourists traveling in Vietnam. Based on the data collected through this application, Vietnamese health authorities have better insights into the cases that require special attention to ensure the fastest and most effective medical assistance as possible. Users need to fill-up personal information and regularly update their own health status. The application is also the official channel for the health authorities to publish pandemic prevention advisories to users.

There is also Bluezone application which was developed by the Authority of IT Application (AITA) (under the Ministry of Information and Communications) with substantial contribution from many Vietnamese ICT firms. Bluezone app uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology on mobile phones for recording near contacts between phones that installed the app. Bluezone shall provide warnings if the device owner was in close physical contact with a positive case, suspicious cases or persons who was in proximity with positive cases. With health agencies, Bluezone also helps to find out exactly cases with high risk of infection to apply immediate measures of quarantines and remedies.

According to statistics of AITA, by September the 8th, there were 22.3 million installs of Bluezone applications nationwide. The top five provinces recorded with the highest percentage of Bluezone installs over total number of smartphone devices are Da Nang, Quang Tri, Hai Duong, Quang Ninh and Quang Nam.

In particular, in the last two weeks of August 2020, Bluezone has helped health agencies in Da Nang, Quang Nam, Hai Duong, Hanoi and Ha Nam trace and discover nearly 1,900 cases of near contact with positive cases and suspicious cases.

By deploying together from very beginning, the above applications have helped the health sector to analyze and aggregate information provided by the community more rapidly and efficiently. On the other hand, the applications provide reliable channels to publish information by the health authorities to help people access to official and most updated information on the pandemic, helping Vietnam to be a spotlight in COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.

TECHNOLOGY TO ASSIST WORK AND STUDY REMOTELY

Not only building applications to control COVID-19 pandemic from widespread, major technology firms've seized opportunities to introduce their digital platforms to facilitate online activities in healthcare and education sectors.

Not only building and deploying applications to control COVID-19, ICT industry has promptly directed and lead big IT enterprises to build and deploy platforms that support working and learning remotely in healthcare and education sectors.

Inthehealthcaresector,only04monthsaftertheopeningofthefirsttelehealthfacility,onSeptember25th,2020,inHanoi,theMinistryofHealthheldtheInaugurationCeremonyof1,000telehealthfacilities.

InthecontextthathealthcaresectorinparticularandthenationingeneralhavebeenfacingmanydifficultiesandchallengesduetotheCOVID-19pandemic,theGovernment,MinistryofHealth,MinistryofInformationandCommunications,andtechnologycompaniesjointlyintroducedremotemedicalsolutionshavehelpedpeopleaccesshighqualitymedicalservicesatease.RemotemedicalexaminationalsohelpstoreducetheriskofCOVID-19infectionthroughhospital'senvironment.

ThePrimeMinisterNguyenXuanPhucsaid:"Thisisanimportantevent,aleapfrogofthehealthsectorinproviding healthcareservicestocitizens.ThisdemonstratedGovernment'sstrongwillanddetermineddirectioninimplementingtheNationalDigitalTransformationProgramtowards2025,visionto2030,settingtheultimategoaltomakeVietnamadigital,stableandprosperouscountry,aswellasaninnovativenationtopilotnewtechnologiesandbusinessmodels".

Expandingremotehealthcheckandtreatmentactivitiesalsoplaysanimportantroleinrenovationprocessofthehealthcaresector,aimingtoimprovequalityofmedicalcheckandtreatmentatalllevels,towardsthesatisfactionofpeopleusingmedicalservices.Atnationalscale,citizensatanylocationshouldhaveequalopportunitiestoaccessandbenefitfromthehighqualitymedical servicesthrough onlineenvironment,toreducehospitaloverloadandnecessityoftransferringpatientsfromlower-levelhospitaltoupper-levelhospitalfacilities.Throughonlineplatformsandsmartelectronicdevices,peopleathomecanbeexamined,consultedandtreatedbyasuperiordoctorwithveryminimaldifferenceinservicequality.

Inthefieldofeducation,justafewdaysafterstudentswereallowedtosuspendschoolingtopreventthespreadofCOVID-19pandemic,technologycompaniesinVietnamsuchasVNPT,Viettel,FPT,...immediatelyintroduceddistanteducationsolutionsforschoolsatnocost.

VNPTGroupprovidesVNPTE-Learning,aned-tech from primary school to university. During the time-off due to the pandemic, teachers and students still conducted teaching and learning activities from home, exchanging materials, assigning and marking exercises... on VNPT E-Learning system. The main role of the solution is to help manage the institution's operations, teachers and educational activities, as well as a channel for students to learn, to take exams and to check their results.

WithasystematicapproachwhichprovidesfullcollectionofteachingandlearningmaterialsoftheMinistryofEducationandTrainingforalllevelsfromprimarytouniversity,VNPTE-Learningisoneoftheliveliestdigitalclassroomsolutions,offeringmanybenefitstobothstudentsandteachers,helping schoolstosavecostssuchaspaperdocuments,curriculum,notebooks,certificates...Onlyafterashortperiodoftime,VNPTE-Learninghasapproachedandsuccessfullyofferedservicestomanyschoolsindozensofprovinceswithhundredsofthousandsofstudentsparticipating,becomingthefirstonlineeducationalplatformtosupportlocalschoolstomaintaintheiractivitiesduringthetime-offduetoCOVID-19 situation.

AnotherexampleisViettelGroupwithViettelStudy(Viettelstudy.vn)solutionwhichprovidesauthoritative,high-qualityandregularlyupdatedteachingandlearningmaterialsontheplatform,isexpectedtoenrichknowledgeandskillsforteachersandstudentswithapproximately11millionuseraccountsfrom40,000schoolsnationwide.Theplatformalsoallowsstudentsandteacherstointeractfromremotedistancesatnocost.

Onlineeducationplatformsareincreasinglydemonstratingstrengthoftechnologyinmakingteachingandlearningmoreeffective,tofacilitateonlinestudypossibleatanytime,anywhere,especiallyinthesituationthatstudentshavingalongperiod oftime-offduetoCOVID-19.

By October 30th, more than 45 million people worldwide have been infected with COVID-19, with nearly 1.2 million deaths. The pandemic continues to be more and more complex and unpredictable in many countries around the world. Vietnam has emerged as spotlight in prevention and control of pandemic with just over 1,100 infected cases and 35 deaths. To take accountability for achieving the positive results, besides the medical and healthcare solutions, it's worth mentioning that Vietnam has radically and creatively made use of ICT solutions to trace and control, as well as ensure social solution to facilitate online teaching and learning for all levels distancing.