According to VnExpress International – Under pandemic impacts, healthcare had become the issue of highest concern among Vietnamese people, according to the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) released Tuesday.

It found 23.84 percent of 16,000 respondents saying they felt that the issue that state apparatuses should address most urgently was healthcare, up 1.64 percent against 2019.

Healthcare was followed by poverty/hunger at 19.1 percent, economic growth at 10.86 percent and jobs/employment at 10.83 percent.

By the time the 2021 PAPI survey was rolled out, the pandemic had claimed about 18,000 lives and the number jumped to nearly 40,000 by the time the survey was completed by mid-February 2022.

Prolonged lockdowns in the economic and industrial hubs of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An as well as restrictive measures applied in more than 50 provinces resulted in an increase in public concern about poverty and job/employment, which had respectively accounted for 8.57 percent and 17.92 percent in 2020.

The pandemic also exerted larger negative impacts on citizens’ employment and income in 2021 than in 2020. The proportion of respondents reporting job and income loss jumped by 10 percent to 37.97 percent and 38.08 percent, respectively.

The index also found that among respondents who elected to answer a question on public hospital services at the district level, there was a slight drop in satisfaction from 96 percent in 2020 to 95 percent in 2021.

“This is the result of many Covid-19 treating medical facilities getting overloaded during a complicated outbreak,” said Paul Schuler, a UNDP representative who joined the survey conducting team.

The Vietnam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a joint collaboration between the Center for Community Support Development Studies (CECODES) under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Vietnam since 2009.

From 2009 to 2020, PAPI captured and reflected the experiences of 146,233 citizens.

In 2021, people participated in the PAPI survey through face-to-face interviews or video calls.

According to VnExpress International – It is no longer necessary for Vietnam to request coronavirus test results from foreign entrants as it only causes more trouble at arrival, a medical expert said.

As currently ruled, anyone entering Vietnam must be tested negative for the new coronavirus within 72 hours if the test is done via the PRC method and 24 hours if via rapid testing before departure.

The rule is applied to all entrants arriving by air, sea, or road.

Arguing that the regulation is no longer necessary, Nguyen Lan Hieu, director of Hanoi Medical University Hospital, said there are now very few countries still requesting a negative test from foreign arrivals as the pandemic has been put under control globally and very few countries are applying the zero-Covid policy.

“Testing does not carry much value these days and only serves the purpose of referencing,” he told VnExpress.

The rule only causes more trouble for those that want to come to Vietnam.

“It needs to be removed soon so that everything could actually get back to normal,” he said.

Vietnam announced to scrap the medical declaration requirement for all foreign entrants from April 27 and domestic medical declaration from April 30.

Inside Vietnam, experts and officials have more than once suggested the Ministry of Health adjusts Covid-19 prevention protocols now that the disease is no longer as dangerous as before and a majority of Vietnamese people have been immunized.

In August 2020, the ministry issued protocols in order to contain the Covid spread, warning people to wear a mask, disinfect their hands, keep a distance from each other, avoid crowds and complete health declarations.

Given the complicated development of the pandemic, the protocols became a mandate and those who failed to follow them would be dealt with according to the law.