The Department of Disease Prevention (Ministry of Health) said that COVID-19 and seasonal flu are both infectious diseases that mainly spread through the respiratory tract. Currently, seasonal flu still circulates year-round in Vietnam and often increases during the summer-autumn transition period. Along with that, COVID-19 also shows signs of increasing cases in recent times.
According to the Ministry of Health, there is no evidence to date that SARS-CoV-2 virus or seasonal flu virus has abnormal changes in virulence. Most people with the disease only have mild symptoms and recover after treatment.
However, the disease can still progress severely in 6 high-risk groups, including:
The elderly;
Young children;
Pregnant women;
People with cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease or other underlying diseases;
People with immunodeficiency;
People who are undergoing cancer treatment or using immunosuppressants.
The Ministry of Health emphasizes that people in the above risk groups need to proactively implement disease prevention measures to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death.
To protect personal and community health, the Ministry of Health recommends that people wear masks when going to medical facilities, crowded places or on public transport; regularly wash their hands with soap or antiseptic solution, cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing, and keep living space ventilated.
In addition, people need to maintain a reasonable diet, exercise, get enough sleep and control underlying diseases well to strengthen resistance.
When symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose or fatigue appear, people should limit contact with others, proactively go to medical facilities for advice, examination and treatment; do not arbitrarily use medicine. In particular, people in high-risk groups need to go to the doctor immediately if symptoms persist or show signs of worsening.
The Department of Disease Prevention said that it is continuing to coordinate with localities and medical facilities to closely monitor the situation of COVID-19 and seasonal flu, monitor the number of cases, severe cases, deaths as well as the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants to promptly deploy appropriate epidemic prevention and control measures.
According to the Ministry of Health, people should not be subjective but also not panic, they need to proactively implement disease prevention measures to protect their health, family and community.
