Ho Chi Minh City Businesses Can Now Use Technology To Assess COVID-19-Related Risks

Businesses can use a COVID-19 risk assessment website

As social distancing eases and businesses have reopened, businesses must maintain safety measures to prevent risks of COVID-19 community transmission.

For this reason, in April, the HCM City Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control (HCSC) has issued a set of indicators for assessment of COVID-19 risks for businesses.

On 5th May, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), in collaboration with Akachain, announced the launch of a risk-assessment website that businesses can use to register accounts, make declarations, and assess the level of safety of their businesses based on the indicators provided by the HCSC.

Vietnam’s COVID-19 risk assessment indicators for businesses

Curbing the risks of COVID-19 transmission requires effective risk assessment, which is why the HCSC’s indicators can help businesses assess COVID-19 risks at work.

The indicators are designed for different sectors, including food and beverage (F&B), education, tourism, transportation, commerce, and attractions.

Pouyen Company during an inspection in April
Image credit: Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee

According to the Ho Chi Minh People’s Committee, the set of indicators is scored on a scale of 0-100. Companies need to score 50 points to pass, so they can continue to run their business.

For example, the set of indicators for Food & Beverage (F&B) has 10 indicators with 10 points each. Restaurants and other F&B businesses are scored based on the sources of their ingredients, the condition of their storage areas, food preparation areas, whether there are enough hand sanitizers for staff, whether staff wear masks while working, and other areas.

Any F&B establishment scoring below 50% must shut down immediately.

Assess COVID-19-related risks on website

From 5th May onwards, businesses can declare the COVID-19 risk levels in their workplace on the business safety inspection website.

Step 1: Visit the Business Safety Inspection website here.

This website is for business owners.

Step 2: Sign up

Image credit: Business Safety Inspection website

A business owner can register for an account by keying in their business tax license number.

Step 3: Log in and make declarations

Image credit: Business Safety Inspection website

The business owner should then indicate the kind of company he or she is running, such as wet markets, wholesale markets, shopping malls, F&B, retail, or others.

Image credit: Business Safety Inspection website

Then, the business owner will fill in information according to each assessment indicator and receive their assessment result.

Step 4: Receive the assessment result via email

Image credit: Business Safety Inspection website

Results will be emailed to business owners.

For better convenience, business owners can make declarations on mobile phone apps by installing the app version of the website on Android or Google Play Store.

Image credit: Deploygate.com

Use technology in the prevention of COVID-19

This is not the first time Vietnam has used technology in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

In April, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and MIC announced the launch of Bluezone, a mobile app jointly developed by Memozone, VNPT, MobiFone, and BKAV to curb community transmission of the coronavirus in Vietnam.

Image credit: Google Play Store

Anyone can install Bluezone on their smartphone. After that, your phone will be able to detect other smartphones with Bluezone installed within a radius of 2 meters, and your phone’s proximity and duration of close contact with the other phones will be recorded.

Once authorities find a COVID-19 positive patient, medical agencies are fully authorized to input the patient’s data into the Bluezone system. This patient’s data will be transmitted to all smartphones in the Bluezone community.

The contact history of the patient who tested positive will be analyzed and made known to other users, so everyone in the Bluezone community knows immediately whether they have been in contact with the infected patient.

Once a case is detected, only people with a history of close contact with the case will be quarantined, instead of thousands of people – as would be the case with less precise contact tracing before.

Download Bluezone on the Google Play Store here.

Combat COVID-19 with technology

Technology plays a critical role in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, helping health authorities to reduce the spread of the virus.

Not only can technologies help to trace contact and detect new cases such as Bluezone, they can allow patients to consult doctors from home using smart health check-up platforms such as the eDoctor app.

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Cover image credit: The Smart Local Vietnam

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Josee Ng