Facing the complex development of the pandemic, businesses are currently implementing many solutions to protect workers' health and maintain stable production.

Production activities at Phuc Thinh Packaging Co., Ltd

Flexible management

The working and living environment in offices and industrial parks is potentially at high risk of disease transmission. The protection of production activities is the top concern of enterprises. Nguyen Trong Hoang, deputy director of Phuc Thinh Packaging Co., Ltd., said the company does not face any difficulties in terms of personnel because workers all reside around the factory area in Nha Be. However, to ensure compliance with pandemic prevention and control, Phuc Thinh organised a distance among employees at the factory by dividing production into three shifts to ensure there were no large crowds of workers. Besides, the delivery in Go Vap area and Thanh Loc ward, District 12 is also guaranteed to be safe.

According to Hoang, despite facing difficulties due to the reduction in production capacity by about half, orders decreased due to the closure of shopping malls, cinemas, etc. Administrative personnel in Go Vap and Thu Duc areas have arranged to work from home. This change is making operating costs significantly higher, but firms have to accept it to keep production, employees and customers.

Located in District 12, Director of Vinh Thanh Dat Food Joint Stock Company (Vfood egg brand) Truong Chi Thien, said although the company's working environment is not air-conditioned, only fans are used, the company is not subjective but still complies with anti-pandemic rules.

To prevent Covid-19, Saigon Food Joint Stock Company has also moved people and rearranged working positions to ensure smooth operations. The company has five food factories with more than 2,500 employees, all of whom have been asked to stay at home (people belonging to any factory stay in that factory). For more than 100 sales staff, specialising in out-of-market activities, they were asked not to return to the company but to scattered distribution centers in Go Vap, Binh Thanh and Tan Binh districts.

In addition, the company continues to activate a strict anti-pandemic control state such as requiring employees to wear masks throughout the working time, measure body temperature, disinfect hands, maintain working distance of one metre, restrict movement between factory areas, employees have lunch at positions where partitions have been arranged and keep a distance.

Enterprises arrange workers to work in shifts to prevent pandemics.

Survival mission

HCM City currently has 17 export processing zones, industrial parks and high-tech zones, 1,500 businesses are operating with 280,000 workers and 3,000 foreign experts. Industrial parks with a large number of workers are considered places with the highest risk of infection.

Nguyen Van Be, Chairman of the Association of Industrial Park Enterprises in HCM City, said that in previous outbreaks, although there were many infections in HCM City, the pandemic had not spread to EPZs and IPs. This time, a positive case for SARS-CoV-2 virus has been detected. The anti-pandemic spirit of each enterprise is even more drastic. Keeping EPZs and ISs safe and maintaining stable production during the Covid-19 pandemic is a vital task not only for State management units but also of each enterprise.

Faced with the above situation, the health sector of HCM City has expanded to take samples for testing and screening at factories and industrial zones in the area. Alongside the authorities of HCM City, the Management Board of EPZs and ISs in HCM City has also deployed solutions to prevent pandemics for each firm. If there is a high risk according to the score of the criteria table, the operation will be stopped.

At a recent meeting with HCM City's Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, Standing Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh requested that businesses must absolutely not be negligent, must regularly update, review and supplement of pandemic prevention and control guidelines of the authorities.

It is necessary to strictly manage and uphold the discipline of employees. Along with that, taking care of life, working conditions ensure distance, spraying disinfectant so that employees can work with peace of mind. The Deputy Prime Minister emphasised that HCM City must be a leading locality in proactively sourcing and speeding up vaccination for people. Besides priority subjects, it is necessary to vaccinate workers and workers in industrial parks.