Decision 218 took effect immediately on the same day, replacing Decision No. 4800/QD-BYT, which was issued in October 2021.

According to the new decision, not only the number of new cases, but also the number of patients in severe condition and fatalities will be taken into account when evaluating the pandemic risk level of a locality.

Three criteria are divided into two groups to measure transmission level and response capacity, following the instruction of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The first criteria covers weekly numbers of new infections in a ward-level area, patients requiring ventilatory support, and deaths per 100,000 residents. 

The second criteria is vaccination coverage, which includes the number of people fully inoculated over the locality’s total population and the number of high-risk citizens receiving full vaccine doses over the total number of people in the group.

The third criteria is on the capacity of medical facilities, including the capacity and readiness to manage and take care of over 10,000 people at the ward-level; the number of unoccupied hospital beds for COVID-19 patients per 100,000 people in the district; and the number of beds in intensive care units (ICU).

A locality’s pandemic level then can be determined as follows, with Level 1 being the lowest risk and Level 4 the highest.

Information on outbreak assessment level (down to local levels) can be accessed at the webpage https://capdodich.yte.gov.vn/map, managed by the health ministry.