Officials of the Provincial Center for Disease Control apply IT in investigating and tracing cases with epidemiological factors related to the Covid-19 epidemic. In the face of complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh directed to make a full-scale, stronger and more effective offensive with more active, comprehensive and more appropriate solutions. , more effectively in the spirit of “fighting the epidemic like fighting the enemy”. In particular, attention must be paid to epidemic prevention and control from early, remotely, from before the epidemic with the motto 5K + vaccines and technology solutions. Following the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, during the past time, especially the 3rd and 4th Covid-19 epidemics in 2021, Quang Ninh has always focused on applying IT in work. epidemic prevention and control, has brought effective, such as: NCOVI voluntary health declaration for people; online medical declaration at tokhaiyte.vn (VietNam Health Declaration application); Bluezone detects close contact with sick people, suspected infected people through Bluetooth of smartphones; anti-epidemic map system at antoancovid.vn for service establishments, accommodation, crowded public places such as schools, medical examination and treatment facilities…; The system records people coming and going to public places through scanning QR codes at smartphone applications such as NCOVI, VietNam Health Declaration, Bluezone… Electronic medical declaration and QR code scanning are applied at Bach Dang Bridge epidemic prevention and control checkpoint. Concretize Notice No. 137/TB-VPCP dated May 30, 2021 of the Government Office “Notifying the conclusion of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the nationwide online meeting on the prevention and control of Covid-19 epidemic. -19″, the provincial directives related to the mandatory application of technology in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, Quang Ninh Department of Information and Communications has actively implemented many solutions. In which, strengthening propaganda, guidance and supervision of localities and units throughout the province on installing Bluezone application; urgently research and build the province’s own website on the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, providing useful and necessary information to serve the direction and operation of the steering committees at all levels and serve people look up information; integrating the province’s Covid-19 map, connecting with central database systems and synchronizing electronic medical declaration data to serve the direction, administration and tracing; Build your own mobile app… Provincial General Hospital staff update hospital information on the National Covid-19 Safe Coexistence Map. Through the IT and telecommunications foundation infrastructure of the province’s e-Government system such as: Provincial public service portal, official email system, public Wi-Fi system… Department of Information and Communications is the focal point. broadcast messages and developments in epidemic prevention and control as well as the direction and administration of the province; provide information on epidemic prevention and control to press agencies, media as well as basic information systems, including information related to tracing work. At times with special factors, the Department produces newsletters or informational content to provide timely, fastest and absolutely accurate information to the press and the grassroots information system. Information in the province’s epidemic prevention and control is updated on the provincial portal and the provincial e-Government page on the Zalo platform. Most of the departments, branches, localities and units in the province currently have fan pages on facebook; All information on the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic is gathered and posted on the e-Government page of Quang Ninh province on the Zalo platform… This is an important part of helping the province to spread messages to the people in the public sector. disease prevention and control, so that every citizen knows and proactively prevents and effectively prevents epidemics at all times and places. Minh Ha

“Last March, I flew to Hanoi for work. Before that, I made a medical declaration on the web, but forgot to take a photo. I thought the data would be on the Bluezone app because this app also has a declaration section. , when I went to the airport to open the app, I knew I had to make a medical declaration from the beginning, which took time,” shared Ngoc Mai, an office worker living in Ho Chi Minh City. “On the last election day, I still had to make a medical declaration when I went to the place. I don’t understand why they didn’t let me scan the QR code that I just declared a few days ago,” said Ngoc Phuong, living in Ba Dinh district, Hanoi. said. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that anti-epidemic applications currently use a unified data store. Photo: VGP. Share with Zing , a representative of the Department of Informatization, under the Ministry of Information and Communications affirmed that the database of applications is now interconnected, helping to increase the efficiency of the applications and reduce the cumbersome for people. Why does the application need data communication? Mr. Do Lap Hien, Deputy Director of the Center for E-Government, under the Department of Informatization, explained the inconvenience when applications use independent and unconnected data. “In the past, there were cases where people declared their health on the NCOVI app, then downloaded more Bluezone to protect themselves. When going to a quarantine point, opening the health declaration function on Bluezone, there is no previously declared data. This is really inconvenient. In the opposite direction, the trace group when accessing the information of the Bluezone app, the data in the app is just the phone’s code. They have to find the corresponding information in the NCOVI or VHD database to know who and where the close contact is. This process will reduce the tracking speed,” said Mr. Hien. Anti-epidemic applications all have medical declaration functions. Data warehouse interoperability ensures this functionality works across applications. Photo: Tuan Anh. During the National Online Conference on the situation and urgent solutions to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic on the morning of May 29, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that the current anti-epidemic applications have used a unified data warehouse. . “Once synchronized, only one operation can access all information on the applications, more effective in fighting the epidemic,” Mr. Hien shared. Centrally connected IT applications, linked data. This is an important development step in the application of technology and data. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung According to the representative of the Center, when updating to the latest version, the applications will use the linked data. This is to ensure that the people’s experience is seamless and unaffected. The latest version of Bluezone will be updated on the iOS and Android app stores this week. “For citizens and users, all changes must be ‘transparent’ to them. The application must not change anything about the user experience, only more convenient, “said Mr. Hien. App data will delete itself after a month Despite being propagated about anti-epidemic applications, many users said they encountered difficulties and inconveniences when using. For example, with the Bluezone application, having to constantly turn on the Bluetooth connection makes users worry about consuming the smartphone’s battery. “I installed Bluezone since last year, but sometimes it bothers me because there are too many notifications. Also, I don’t know if the app is effective because now I don’t see the number of people exposed to almost the same amount of time,” Anh Hoang said. , working in Hanoi shared. In addition, the information that people who do not install Bluezone may be fined is also confusing. Reply Zing , a representative of the Information Technology Department, Ministry of Health said that the fine or not will depend on local regulations. Bluezone application supports the process of tracing, close contact. Photo: VH. “The regulation clearly states that when going to a public place, it is mandatory to install the Bluezone application and turn on Bluetooth. If it is in a personal space, at home or in a place where there are not many people, it is not necessary. The sanction will depend on the risk or development of the epidemic in the locality. Thus, depending on the local situation, the sanction will be assigned to the People’s Committees of the provinces and cities for their own consideration and decision”, said Mr. Nguyen Truong Nam, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade. Health said. Personal data will be deleted after one month of storage so that people can rest assured to comply. Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung In addition, there are also concerns about the security of people’s personal information. Sharing about this issue, a representative of the Center for E-Government said that current data according to regulations will be deleted after 30 days. This number may change depending on the development of the disease and the requirements of the Ministry of Health. “Currently reserved data will be deleted after one month. When deleted, it will be completely deleted and cannot be retrieved, in order to ensure the privacy of users, “said Mr. Hien. Due to anti-epidemic requirements, many units and objects can access anti-epidemic data. However, depending on the scope and needs, these objects will have limited access. Not everyone can access the user’s data and information. In addition, according to the Minister of Information and Communications, wearable isolation monitoring devices will be deployed from June 1, immediately for workers in industrial parks. This bracelet is part of a seamless system, data will also be shared with other applications to ensure isolation. “Currently, the new bracelet solution is being tested at the request of the Ministry of Health. Regardless of the technology application, we will ensure that the data is attached to the application, which is part of the system.” representative of the Center for E-Government said.

Always wear a mask, open the Bluezone app, declare health when going to public places. Accordingly, for technologies that are promoting effective epidemic prevention and control, it is necessary to change and switch from voluntary encouragement to compulsory installation of some basic applications. THREE “Attack” against COVID-19 Currently, there are three “attacks” to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic: Increasing testing on a large scale, implementing a vaccine strategy and applying technology for tracing. In particular, the use of technology chaired by the Ministry of Information and Communications is promoting effectively. Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that the new approach from the Prime Minister’s point of view is a harmonious combination between prevention and attack. Previously, medical declaration applications for epidemic prevention and control, and support for tracing only recommended people to use, but now will become mandatory. Second, anti-epidemic data sources must be centralized in one processing hub. Previously, because people declared through different applications, the data was scattered. Now the data must be centralized so that advanced and modern technology can be applied to perform the analysis to produce the required results. Mr. Nguyen Truong Nam, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Department (Ministry of Health), said that for the health declaration for the entire population, people can declare through 3 applications: NCOVI, Bluezone and Vietnam Health Declaration. Specifically, Vietnam Health Declaration is a software of the Military Telecommunications Industry Corporation (Viettel), so the declared data is stored at Viettel. Data declared by people on Bluezone (of Bkav Technology Group) and NCOVI (of Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group – VNPT) are stored centrally at the Department of Informatization (Ministry of Information and Communications). After being collected, the medical declaration data will be collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in provinces, agencies and units according to their competence. This data is used for control, analysis and case tracing. Meanwhile, many units still use paper declaration and electronic declaration in parallel. Faced with the fact that medical declaration data is still scattered, the Information Technology Department (Ministry of Health) is working with units to promote data interoperability and build a centralized medical declaration database. central, connected. INSTALLATION AND USE OF THE APP WILL BE REQUIRED According to experience from previous infections, the next epidemic is more difficult, complicated, unpredictable than the previous one, the consequences are more severe, the treatment is more difficult, and the impact is worse. At the Government Standing Meeting on Covid-19 epidemic prevention a few days ago, the Prime Minister noted: currently the number of new infections and deaths on the world epidemic map continues to increase; illegal entry and residence tend to be more in recent times; appeared subjective, negligent and unwary thoughts of many localities, agencies, units and people; centralized isolation management, after isolation (when returning to the locality) is still inadequate; The new strain of the SARS-Cov-2 virus spreads quickly, is difficult to detect, and has complicated developments. It is predicted that the epidemic situation will continue to be complicated, it will be long, it is not possible to confirm the time when the epidemic will end. Therefore, we must be ready to deal with the epidemic at the highest level, and we must live safely while the epidemic is still around us. Following the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Information and Communications has issued the document “Guide to use the set of solutions to support Covid-19 prevention, control and tracing in the community”. This set of solutions includes Bluezone (a close contact warning application for suspected Covid-19 patients), NCOVI (voluntary health declaration management system), medical declaration for people on entry, and a system to record people coming and going to public places (via QR code scanning) and Covid-19 safe anti-epidemic map system. Currently, there are 9 provinces and cities nationwide that have implemented Covid-19 epidemiological information mapping software (called CovidMaps). The CovidMaps map allows real-time monitoring of the epidemic situation in Da Nang, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam, Gia Lai, Phu Yen and Lang Son. The Covid-19 epidemiological information map (CovidMaps) helps the community to visually monitor epidemiological information of local cases via the Internet, the government has more digital technology solutions to serve management and control. practice in epidemic prevention and control. According to the information in the document “Guidelines for using a set of solutions to support Covid-19 prevention, control and tracing in the community,” if 60% of adults install the Bluezone application on their phones, the reported data about cases of close contact, contact with people with Covid-19 will reach an almost absolute level of accuracy. Therefore, in order to promote effectiveness in epidemic prevention and control, it is necessary to join hands to use and voluntarily declare accurately information of the people and the community. Many people think that installing and using the application will become a mandatory requirement, like wearing a mask. For industrial parks and factories, the Ministry of Information and Communications has proposed that people working in industrial parks, factories and enterprises must install the Bluezone application and the NCOVI medical declaration application. .
At public places, offices need to scan QR Codes to be able to collect digital data on the system to record arrivals or departures at public places. In addition, any citizen when going to crowded places needs to install the Bluezone application, to be able to detect close contact with infected people (data already stored on the system). The Government Office issued Official Letter No. 3440/VPCP-KGVX to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information and Communications with the content considering the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Communications on the implementation of a number of information technology applications and Connecting surveillance cameras to support the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic. Persons subject to medical supervision and isolation must declare mandatory information on the application. This mandatory also requires the awareness of the community not only to install the application on the mobile device, but to enable the connection for the application to work. Moreover, using Bluezone and turning on Bluetooth when going to public places, when exposed to large numbers of people, will help people protect themselves and the community, and at the same time help in zoning out the epidemic and tracing it quickly. . When a Covid-19 patient is detected, only those at high risk are quarantined instead of isolating everyone involved. The Ministry of Information and Communications has just sent an official dispatch to the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities and the Departments of Information and Communications of the provinces and cities about the implementation of the surveillance camera system at the agencies. centralized isolation facility to prevent Covid-19.

Accordingly, in the face of increasingly complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic in the city, the Department of Informatization recommends agencies and units under the Ministry of Information and Communications to use technological solutions for medical declaration. Manage people entering and exiting the office. Specifically, in addition to officials, civil servants, public employees, and employees in the agency, all guests coming to contact work are required to install and turn on the application to install the Bluezone proximity detection application before go to work. This rule only excludes those who do not use smartphones. Bluezone application is the most effective tool to trace people suspected of being infected with Covid-19. Photo: Trong Dat At the entrance of offices and units under the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Department of Informatization recommends that you paste a QR Code to install the Bluezone application at a recognizable location to support users. Guests who come to work at agencies and headquarters of the Ministry of Information and Communications also need to make an electronic medical declaration. The declaration will be made on 1 of 3 applications Bluezone, NCOVI, Vietnam Health Declaration or on website tokhaiyte.vn. The paper medical declaration will only be applied to those who do not have a smartphone. In addition, agencies and units in the Ministry of Information and Communications have also been advised to manage people entering and leaving the office by scanning QR codes. To do this, units need to register for a “quarantine point” and get their QR code at website tokhaiyte.vn. This QR code will be printed and pasted at a recognizable location at the entrance of each agency or unit. Scanning QR codes is a measure to save users’ epidemiological milestones. Guests coming to contact business will be forced to scan a QR code for quarantine using one of the 3 applications Bluezone, NCOVI, Vietnam Health Declaration. In the event that after scanning the quarantine QR code, the application says that the user has not made a medical declaration or the declaration has expired, they will be forced to make a medical declaration and re-scan the code. At the entrance to the offices, the Department of Informatization also recommends arranging a department to check and monitor the scanning of quarantine QR codes of employees and visitors to contact for work. Using the Bluezone tracing app, electronic medical declarations and scanning QR codes for quarantine are just 3 of the 5 anti-epidemic solutions with technology proposed by the Ministry of Information and Communications to localities. Previously, sharing at the current news at 19:00 on May 26 of Vietnam Television, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung said that renewing the approach to technology in Covid-19 prevention and control is a combination balance between “defence” and “attack”. In terms of technology, “attack” is the mandatory use of some key applications to prevent Covid-19, instead of just recommending as before. If before, data was distributed by application, now data must be managed centrally. Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Huy Dung. The Ministry of Information and Communications has proposed mandatory use of Bluezone application. Workers in industrial parks, factories and enterprises are required to make medical declarations. People using smartphones are required to use an application to identify close contact when going to a public place, where there are many people. Public places and offices must control people coming, going, leaving and entering by scanning QR codes. The fourth measure is to use technology to support the monitoring of people in medical isolation. According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Huy Dung, turning on Bluetooth and using the Bluezone application when going to public places will help users protect themselves, protect the community, assist in zoning out the epidemic, and quickly trace. When that happens, it will also help isolate high-risk people, rather than everyone. For agencies and organizations, effective disease prevention will help agencies, organizations, factories and enterprises maintain normal production and business activities. Trong Dat

Specifically, this map provides epidemiological information, such as: living areas and contact places of patients infected with Covid-19 in 14 days, concentrated isolation points, medical isolation areas and checkpoints. disease control …, help people not move to hot spots, avoid infection. When people have a need to find places where Covid-19 patients have been with the exact time, the system will look up the patient’s epidemiological information. With concentrated isolation points, the warning section will show the time of application, the maximum number of receptions, the number of people in quarantine and the number of people that can receive more. To use this digital map, users only need to access the address https://covidmaps.langson.gov.vn . Digital map of Lang Son province So far, the country has had 9 localities deploying Covid-19 epidemiological information mapping software, including: Da Nang, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Quang Nam, Gia Lai, and Phu Yen. and Lang Son. Also on May 24, the Military Telecommunications Industry Group (Viettel) completed the installation and integrated connection of 3,000 surveillance cameras in isolated areas in the northern provinces. All image data from the camera is integrated into a centralized management system at the Monitoring Operations Center. The epidemic prevention and control agencies can monitor all activities in isolation areas from the 24-hour management system, minimizing developments that may aggravate the epidemic situation. Before that, right after the Covid-19 epidemic just appeared, Vietnamese technology enterprises were tasked with building software for epidemic prevention and control such as Bluezone, tokhaiyte.vn, NCOVI… In fact, these applications have been applied quite effectively in many localities in the quick tracking of cases. Experience from abroad also proves that the applications contribute effectively in zoning, isolating and stamping out the epidemic. For example, when Covid-19 began to spread in Wuhan (China), this locality applied the Beidou satellite navigation system to monitor freight transport, traffic flow, zoning, and distances. separate people in the city and with neighboring provinces. In particular, China has a system of facial recognition cameras placed everywhere. This system combined with big data, machine learning can analyze the travel schedule, body temperature, number of people in contact, thereby easily partitioning and isolating F1, F2, F3 as soon as F0 is detected.

With dozens of Covid-19 positive cases being discovered every day, many solutions such as localization, tracing of suspected infected people, vaccination, community immunization, … have been deployed to limit the spread of the disease. However, unlike other pandemics, Covid-19 is showing that this is not just a common pandemic. With many variations and outbreaks, the prevention of Covid-19 is a long battle and requires the participation of the whole society. This fact shows that non-traditional anti-epidemic solutions are needed. Anti-epidemic technology is the most optimal choice today for the society to function normally. People harvest agricultural products in the epidemic heart in Hai Duong. Photo: Trong Dat To meet the urgent requirements of epidemic prevention and control, the Ministry of Information and Communications has issued the document “Instructions on the use of Covid-19 support solutions to prevent, combat and trace in the community”. Accordingly, in order to combat epidemics with technology, localities need to combine many different solutions. These solutions included the implementation of the installation of Bluezone (the application of warning for close contact with suspected Covid-19) and NCOVI (voluntary medical declaration management system). Localities also need to deploy the system to record people coming and going to public places through QR code scanning and epidemic prevention map system. For places with airports and border gates, these localities need to make electronic medical declaration for people entering. What is the effectiveness of anti-epidemic technology by technology? According to experts, technology solutions such as Bluezone applications can only achieve high efficiency if they are used by more than 60% of the population. Recognition of the developer shows that, as of March 2021, more than 30 million people used Bluezone applications. Considering the actual implementation efficiency, during the 2nd Covid-19 outbreak (July 25, 2020) in Hai Duong, with the proportion of people who installed Bluezone being 27%, 1,035 was identified in this locality. F1, F2. Many recommendations have been made by authorities about people should install Bluezone application to receive warnings in case of contact with suspected Covid-19. Photo: Trong Dat In the second outbreak on January 27, 2021 in Hai Duong, the rate of installing Bluezone applications was 43% of the total population of the province. As a result, the system has traced 1,993 F1 and F2 cases. It is noteworthy that by doing this, the health agency found 17 positive cases outside the list of traditional epidemiological investigations. With the successes and experiences gained in Hai Duong, Bluezone is considered as the most effective measure for effective zoning, helping to maintain the status of an isolated house, the whole society can still operate normally. With NCOVI application, as of February 3, 2021, the number of NCOVI applications installed was 7.8 million. The number of medical declaration records for the entire population is 18 million, the number of updated health monitoring records is 52.95 million, the number of scan records of QR code is 7.25 million. Medical declarations are basic input so that health agencies can keep informed about the health situation of each citizen. The large collection of medical manifest data also makes it possible for authorities to immediately detect a large-scale Covid-19 outbreak. Citizens are encouraged to make electronic medical declarations at least 1 time per day. Recently, Vietnam is using another solution, which is to check in to save epidemiological landmarks with QR codes. With this measure, people need to scan QR codes to check in every time they go to public places. In the event that a person is determined positive for Covid-19, the authorities will base on the history of scanning the QR code of the person to filter out the “epidemiological landmarks” that the patient has joined or went to. for a period of 3 days before onset of illness. Those who have arrived at the “epidemiological milestones” during the time the patient checked in will be listed for the investigator to trace, from which the F1s will be identified. Workers at the aluminum mine in Lam Dong perform check-in by QR code upon arrival at the workplace. According to the representative of Bkav – Bluezone application development unit, the measure of checking in public places helps to quickly track outbreak places such as restaurants and markets. In addition, the regular check-in by QR code on Bluezone also helps to increase the efficiency of contact recognition. Storing “epidemiological landmarks” by QR code, tracing suspected infected persons by Bluezone and medical declaration on NCOVI will form a set of tools to help early detection, effective localization and limit the spread of the epidemic. This is how Make in Vietnam digital technologies creep and solve problems in life.