HCMC – The Ministry of Health has allowed enterprises to decide their production and business models during the Covid-19 pandemic, making the stay-at-work mode optional.
The ministry on August 12 sent a document on Covid-19 infection prevention and control at production and business units to localities, the local media reported.
Accordingly, enterprises can take the initiative to deploy anti-pandemic measures while maintaining their normal operations.
The ministry asked the governments of cities and provinces to instruct enterprises to develop anti-pandemic plans in line with the situation in their localities and the directives of the national steering committee for Covid-19 infection prevention and control and the Ministry of Health.
Local authorities must also inspect and supervise the development of the plan and its implementation but must avoid an overlap in inspection.
The city/provincial Departments of Health must conduct regular testing for at least 20% of workers of enterprises reporting no Covid cases and at least half of the employees of firms which have had Covid cases.
According to the Ministry of Health, some northern provinces, such as Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, have successfully applied the stay-at-work mode. However, the mode has not proved effective in some southern provinces.
At a press briefing after the regular Cabinet meeting on August 11, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai also admitted that the solution was not effective in the south and should be applied for a short period only.
In addition, the number of workers in industrial parks in Bac Ninh and Bac Giang is not too high, while enterprises in the south have thousands to tens of thousands of workers each. They come from many other parts of the country, so it is hard to ask them to stay at their factories after work for a long time.
Moreover, the cost of letting workers stay at factories after work is high, so some enterprises can afford seven to 20 days.
Therefore, many enterprises have proposed allowing workers to travel between work and home.
