Lawmakers to discuss use, management of resources for COVID-19 fight

Continuing the ongoing fifth session, the 15th National Assembly will spend a whole day on May 29 to examine the mobilisation, management and use of resources for COVID-19 prevention and control, as well as the enforcement of laws and regulations regarding grassroots health care and preventive medicine.

According to the report presented at the 22nd meeting of the NA Standing Committee, over 236 trillion VND (10.2 billion USD) were raised for pandemic prevention and control as of December 31, 2022, more than 189 trillion VND of which were from the State budget and the remainder from other sources, mostly vaccines.

The COVID-19 vaccine fund raised over 15.1 trillion VND. The total doses of vaccines supplied by donors was nearly 160 million, about 150 million of which were from governments with a total value of approximately 24 trillion VND. Millions of volunteers, especially medical workers and military officers were on the frontline of the pandemic response. People from walks of life, business community, governments and international organisations offered material donations and other forms of support to the COVID-19 fight.

The allocated funding and aid resources were promptly distributed to units which generally used them in line with regulations.

Last year, the network of grassroots health care facilities expanded nationwide. All districts had medical centres while 99.6% of communes, wards, and townships had medical stations.

The Government, Prime Minister, Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and relevant agencies are studying and proposing amendments, supplements, or new laws such as a Law on Disease Prevention, revising the Ordinance on the State of Emergency or the Law on State of Emergency, and amending the Health Insurance Law to remove obstacles and limitations in the mobilisation, management and use of resources for pandemic prevention and control and the strengthening of the grassroots health care network and preventive medicine.