How did the Ho Chi Minh City government react when it realized theproblems of technology applications used during the Covid pandemic?

3. How did the Ho Chi Minh City government react when it realized the
problems of technology applications used during the Covid pandemic?
The fourth outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially starting from July
2021, has made the resilience of the business sector continue to decline. Specifically,
according to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, the number of
newly established businesses in July 2021 decreased by 34% compared to the same
period last year (Võ, 2021). Meanwhile, the number of businesses withdrawing from
the market increased by 25.5% over the same period in 2020, Ho Chi Minh City alone.
Ho Chi Minh City accounted for 29.1% of the total number of enterprises withdrawing
from other countries (Võ, 2021). In particular, there have appeared more medium and
large enterprises withdrawing from the market. Truong Gia Binh, Head of the
Research and Development Department of the Private Economy, Chairman of FPT
Corporation, suggested that the Government should have a view on “green
enterprises” to both fight the epidemic and develop the economy. Specifically,
launching a “Green War” to fight Covid-19 with criteria such as green workers
(vaccinated), green factories (with green workers), green industrial parks (with green
factories). The most important things to do in this war are: minimizing the number of
deaths, maximum green zone and modern weapons. The Government needs to direct
relevant authorities to issue QR codes to all subjects who complete vaccination on
technology platforms to create operating conditions for green businesses, without
requiring documents and current administrative procedures (Võ, 2021).
The implementation of the “Green War” was started by the Government with
the transport industry because this is an important industry to help support the
business economy and people's needs during the pandemic. Specifically, document
No.4979/TCCBVN-VT dated July 18, 2021, of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam
on deploying and using software to register for issuance and management and use of
Vehicle Identification Card (with QR code) prioritizing operations on transport “Green
Streams”. Some transport enterprises have registered for “Green Streams” at the link
http://luongsinh.drvn.gov.vn of the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam. However, the
issuance of priority QR code operating on “Green Streams” in localities is still slow
compared to actual requirements. Some businesses take up to 24 hours to receive a
priority QR code to print and paste on the vehicle. This problem has also been solved
by the Government by offering priority means of transport, according to Directive
No.16/CT-TTg, to receive the traffic code first (TD, 2021).
Besides, the issuance of QR codes for businesses is also difficult and delayed
due to the limited knowledge of information technology and the conditions of access
to technology by employees. For this issue, the Government has supported businesses
to register QR codes by unit. To register, businesses can use the HCM Health
application or go to https://antoan-covid.tphcm.gov.vn to complete the procedure for
issuing Unit QR code and application administration account to support operations,
safe production and business. Then, log in with the provided account and password to
log in to the administration system and select the “User Guide” function to view and
use the administrative functions of the server application (Sỹ, 2021).
The same problem also happens to citizens when they do not know how to
approach and receive QR codes even though they are fully vaccinated. In this case, the
Department of Information and Communications requests agencies to deploy control
points to check QR codes. The People's Committee of Thu Duc city and districts
organize volunteer teams to assist people with difficulties in creating Personal QR
codes and printing them out. Citizens who need support with relevant information
about personal QR codes can also contact Call Center 1022 for support and guidance
or contact the local People's Committee of wards and communes for assistance in
creating and printing Personal QR codes (Sỹ, 2021).
Currently, ministries and sectors have deployed and put into use a series of
smart applications to support the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic
such as Bluezone, VHD, Electronic health book, tokhaiyte.vn,
suckhoe.dancuquocgia.gov.vn, etc. In addition, Viettel and MobiFone also built
medical declaration applications called NCOVI and Vietnam Health. However, the
fact that they deployed too many applications made the citizens confused about which
app is the right one. According to Tran Minh Hai: “When asked by the city to install
the Bluezone application for medical declaration, I downloaded and used it. However,
when going to work, the agency requires a different application to declare it. This
makes me feel extremely confused as to which application to keep and up to now,
there are 3 apps on my phone for reporting, tracing...” The application of medical
declaration in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic is extremely
necessary, even mandatory. In order to avoid overlapping and confusion when using,
many people have raised the question: Why not sync all the apps into one to facilitate
monitoring and medical declaration? (Trần, 2021)
To solve the problem with too many apps, the National Center for Technology for
Covid-19 Prevention and Control, PC-Covid is an application that synthesizes existing
features of other anti-epidemic applications and is designed to be most convenient for
the user. The data on the application will be linked and authenticated from 04 big data
sources, including the national population database, national insurance database, and
national database. on vaccination, Covid-19 prevention and Covid-19 test database.
The basic features of the PC-Covid application include Medical declaration,
Reflection, QR code scanning, Close contact, Test information, etc.
Besides the too many apps situation, there is also another issue that occurred
right after it. Many people said that even though they have been fully vaccinated, they
don’t have the QR code to show that they are already fully vaccinated. This situation
is causing many people panic and anxiety. Because if vaccination information has not
been updated on the electronic health book, it can cause many difficulties after the
need to present the certificate of vaccination, especially when Ho Chi Minh city and
many localities in the country have planned to deploy Covid Green Card for people to
participate in labor, production and social activities based on the level of epidemic control. (Thái, 2021)
The Government replied that because the number of injections was too large at
the same time, some medical facilities could not update the information on the system.
Therefore, people can fill in their information and send it to the Covid-19
Immunization Portal to get updated shots. You can send feedback to the Covid-19
Immunization Portal to be updated by submitting a request to update and edit
information on the Covid-19 Immunization Portal with the link
https://tiemchungcovid19.gov.vn, select “Phản ánh thông tin” or access to
https://tiemchungcovid19.gov.vn/portal/portal-report (Thái, 2021). Reference
Sỹ, Đ (năm 2021, tháng 10, ngày 04). Báo Thanh niên. Người dân và doanh nghiệp
TP.HCM cần biết về mã QR trên ứng dụng Y tế HCM. Truy cập từ trang
https://thanhnien.vn/nguoi-dan-va-doanh-nghiep-tp-hcm-can-biet-ve-ma-qr-tren-
ung-dung-y-te-hcm-post1386787.html
TD (năm 2021, tháng 07, ngày 26). Báo điện tử của Chính phủ nước Cộng hòa Xã hội
chủ nghĩa Việt Nam. Gỡ khó việc chậm cấp thẻ ưu tiên ‘luồng xanh’ vận tải.
Truy cập từ trang http://baochinhphu.vn/Kinh-te/Go-kho-viec-cham-cap-the-uu-
tien-luong-xanh-van-tai/440048.vgp
Thái, A (năm 2021, tháng 09, ngày 12). Quân đội nhân dân. Làm gì khi tiêm vắc xin
Covid-19 nhưng Sổ sức khỏe điện tử chưa cập nhật? Truy cập từ trang
https://www.qdnd.vn/y-te/tin-tuc/lam-gi-khi-tiem-vac-xin-covid-19-nhung-so-
suc-khoe-dien-tu-chua-cap-nhat-671038
Thái, A (năm 2021, tháng 09, ngày 13). Quân đội nhân dân. Vì sao đã tiêm vaccine
nhưng Sổ sức khỏe điện tử chưa cập nhật mã QR? Truy cập từ trang
https://www.qdnd.vn/y-te/tin-tuc/vi-sao-da-tiem-vaccine-nhung-so-suc-khoe-
dien-tu-chua-cap-nhat-ma-qr-671152
Trần, Y (năm 2021, tháng 09, ngày 23). Quân đội nhân dân. Loạn ứng dụng khai báo
y tế, các app “sức khỏe điện tử” gây phiền hà cho dân. Truy cập từ trang
https://www.qdnd.vn/giao-duc-khoa-hoc/chuyen-doi-so/loan-ung-dung-khai-bao-
y-te-cac-app-suc-khoe-dien-tu-gay-phien-ha-cho-dan-672039
Võ, H. H (2021). Hội nghị trực tuyến của Thủ tướng Chính phủ làm việc với doanh
nghiệp, hiệp hội doanh nghiệp và địa phương về các giải pháp tháo gỡ khó
khăn, thúc đẩy sản xuất kinh doanh trong bối cảnh đại dịch Covid-19: “Lắng
nghe, thấu hiểu, chia sẻ, đồng hành”. Truy cập từ ngày 08, tháng 10, năm 2021
từ https://dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn/vn/tin-tuc/597/5426/hoi-nghi-truc-tuyen-cua-
thu-tuong-chinh-phu-lam-viec-voi-doanh-nghiep--hiep-hoi-doanh-nghiep-va-dia-
phuong-ve-cac-giai-phap-thao-g.aspx
4. Suggested solutions from our team [Nhựt]
In conclusion, the government's efforts in developing electronic applications to
control Covid over the past time have brought significant results and have met the
initial requirements. However, there are still limitations that need to be improved to
help Vietnam return to the “new normal” life. As we can see, HCM City authorities
have attempted to implement so many efforts in applying technology, social media
during the pandemic to make the processes easier and more effective. So, our team
suggests that the local government should promote more digitalization in operations,
specifically in the pandemic. They need to put more resources into the project that
combine all the apps into one so everyone can use and access it in the fastest way
without getting confused while at it. At present, the issue that many people pay
attention to and need to pay attention to and improve is the Covid Green Card.
According to the information that we have learned, the Government has confirmed
that PC-Covid is the only general application that people need to own. Although the
application integrates many functions from other apps that can support both the people
and the Government in monitoring the epidemic situation, there are currently many
complaints about people having vaccinated but not yet received confirmation on the
app. In the functions, there is support to edit the vaccination status, but the time to
process and update information is quite long, making people's lives and work affected.
In this situation, we recommend that the government update vaccination information
electronically immediately after vaccination so that people can quickly receive their
Green Card. In addition, it is also necessary to strengthen support staff in the
processing of declared information to speed up information updating. According to
our assessment, the issuance time of Green Card is lagging behind the rate of
vaccination in the city. Furthermore, we think they should simplify how to use the PC-
Covid app and provide instructions when installing the app so that people who are not
familiar with the technology can still use it easily. The next issue we think should be
improved is the dissemination of electronic health applications and information related
to the epidemic situation. Currently, this information is spread mainly through media
such as television, smartphones, etc, and through social networking sites, specifically
Zalo. However, many of the working poor and unemployed do not have access to
these facilities and do not even know how to ask for assistance. We think the
Government should plan propaganda with flyers, banners, or provide equipment to
households in difficulty so that they can update vaccination status and Covid-19 information. [Minh]
In the fight against Covid-19, the effective application of technology has
become one of the factors that help many countries control the disease.
Technology is used to prevent the spread of the virus, care for patients and
reduce pressure on the health system. Technology helps health officials make
decisions. Artificial intelligence, robots, and drones are deployed to help track the
source of the disease and enforce containment efforts. Until this day, the apps help to
report on violations of Covid-19 prevention measures, illegal trading of items during
social distancing, detection of strangers in neighborhoods, and suspicious cases of
Covid-19 infections. The app also displays a digital map with updated information
about lockdown areas in the city, locations of Covid-19 infections, locations that sell
facemasks, healthcare institutes, and essential convenience stores. According to a
representative of the HCM City Department of Information and Communications, all
information will be recorded and transferred to relevant authorities for handling as an
emergency situation. Technological solutions recommended by the Ministry of
Information and Communications have contributed to helping many provinces in
Vietnam detect, localize, and prevent the spread of Covid-19 while maintaining a “new normal” life.
As for the citizens, the Government needs to put more resources into the
project that combine all the apps into one so everyone can use and access it in the
fastest way without getting confused while at it. Although applications still have many
shortcomings, using these applications in the “new normal” period is very important
when people go out in public need QR codes to certify themselves as approved fully
vaccinated to be able to function normally. Summary
In conclusion, the government's efforts in developing electronic applications to
control Covid over the past time have brought significant results and have met the
initial requirements. As we can see, HCM City authorities have attempted to
implement so many efforts in applying technology, social media during the pandemic
to make the processes easier and more effective. However, there are still some
limitations that we think need to be improved to help Vietnam return to the “new normal” life.
First off, our team suggests that the local Government should promote more
digitalization in operations, specifically in the pandemic. They need to put more
resources into the project that combines all the apps into one, PC-Covid, so everyone
can use and access it in the fastest way without getting confused while at it. At
present, the issue that many people are most concerned about is to receive their Covid
Green Card. Although the application integrates many functions from other apps that
can support both the people and the Government in monitoring the epidemic situation,
there are currently many complaints about people having vaccinated but not yet
received confirmation on the app. In the functions, there is support to edit the
vaccination status, but the time to process and update information is quite long,
making people's lives and work affected. For this situation, we recommend that the
Government update vaccination information electronically immediately after
vaccination so that people can quickly receive their Green Card. It is also necessary to
strengthen support staff in the processing of declared information to speed up
information updating. According to our assessment, the issuance time of Green Card is
lagging behind the rate of vaccination in the city. Furthermore, we think they should
simplify how to use the PC-Covid app and provide instructions when installing the
app so that people who are not familiar with the technology can still use it easily.
The next issue we think should be improved is the dissemination of electronic
health applications and information related to the epidemic situation. Currently, this
information is spread mainly through media such as television, smartphones, etc, and
through social networking sites, specifically Zalo. However, many of the working
poor and unemployed do not have access to these facilities and do not even know how
to ask for assistance. We think the Government should plan propaganda with flyers,
banners, or provide equipment to households in difficulty so that they can update
vaccination status and Covid-19 information.