Leaders of Dong Thap province encourage seafood enterprises to restore production

Up anti-pandemic level

On November 2, 2021, according to the Center for Disease Control of Bac Lieu province, in the past 24 hours, there were 316 positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the area. in which 182 cases were recorded in the community.

Notably, Gia Rai town continues to be a "hot spot" with dozens of cases related to the infection chain of three seafood enterprises, with thousands of workers.

In the face of complicated disease developments, starting today, Bac Lieu has upgraded the province's pandemic level from level 2 (yellow zone, medium risk) to level 4 (red zone, very high risk).

Similarly, provinces and cities with many seafood processing enterprises for export, such as Can Tho, Soc Trang have adjusted the level of anti-pandemic zoning from level 1 (green zone, new normal) to grade 2 (yellow zone, medium risk).

The pandemic breaks out in western provinces when the flow of people from pandemic areas to their hometowns is too high, the infection rate is about 1%, while the locality is not ready for the conditions, especially when the vaccination rate is still low. In addition, many people returning from pandemic areas did not strictly follow the request of home isolation, making the disease spread faster.

Notably, the pandemic spread rapidly in a number of seafood processing and export enterprises, with a very large number of workers infected with Covid-19.

At the end of October 2021, an export seafood processing enterprise in Tra Noc Industrial Park (Can Tho) had about 1,000 workers, but more than 150 people were infected with Covid-19; when inspecting a seafood enterprise in Soc Trang, the Health sector found more than 230 workers infected with Covid-19.

Seafood enterprises are anxious

According to Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, with a new view of living with the pandemic, F0 cases would be close to the “barrier” of enterprises and ready to penetrate inside.

As evidence of this, in the past few days, shrimp processing enterprises from Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang have cases of F0 in their screening process continuously.

“Enterprises cannot be subjective, because it is a fact that some workers with two vaccines for more than two months are still infected with the virus. Some workers tested negative the day before, but had the opposite result the next day. Therefore, enterprises must have adequate facilities and conditions for testing and medical screening for all their employees closely and thoughtfully,” Mr. Ho Quoc Luc said.

Up to now, the rate of one dose is still quite low in some western provinces. Therefore, it is urgent that enterprises recommend more vaccines so that workers in the entire production chain can get two injections.

Enterprises always consider pandemic prevention as a key, regular and long-term task. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to the long-distance driver team of the enterprise. The supply of raw materials, supplies, food into the enterprises must go through the buffer zone to minimize contact and limit the spread.

According to experts, in the context that the disease is still at risk of outbreak, while vaccines cannot be covered, enterprises need to be very urgent, attaching importance to maintaining the safety of production. This takes a lot of effort and money, but is extremely necessary and cannot be ignored or taken lightly.

Along with anti-pandemic work, production recovery, the review and assessment of product consumption in the new context cannot be underestimated. It is necessary to observe the market situation; new thoughts and habits of consumers to define markets, customers and product strategies for each period in order to take advantage of opportunities.

Besides, production costs of enterprises always tend to increase continuously, can only reduce the rate and speed, forcing enterprises to always find ways to optimize operations to increase productivity, reduce scrap and save money.