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Japanese supercomputer simulations showed that wearing two masks gave limited benefit in blocking viral spread compared with one properly fitted mask.

The findings in part contradict recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that two masks were better than one at reducing a person’s exposure to the coronavirus.

Researchers used the Fugaku supercomputer to model the flow of virus particles from people wearing different types and combinations of masks, according to a study released on Thursday by research giant Riken and Kobe University.

Using a single surgical-type mask, made of non-woven material, had 85% effectiveness in blocking particles when worn tightly around the nose and face. Adding a polyurethane mask on top boosted the effectiveness to just 89%.

Wearing two non-woven masks isn’t useful because air resistance builds up and causes leakage around the edges.

“The performance of double masking simply does not add up,” wrote the researchers, led by Makoto Tsubokura.

In general, professional grade N95 masks were the best in protecting against infection, followed by non-woven masks, cloth masks, and finally polyurethane types, the study showed.

The Riken research team previously used the Fugaku supercomputer to model how humidity can affect viral contagion and the infection risks in trains, work spaces, and other environments.

As the COVID-19 epidemic has worn on, scientific consensus has grown that the virus is spread through the air and masks are effective in controlling contagion.

Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long at Friday meeting of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — Vaccinations using the recently-imported AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are expected to start on Monday, Minister of Health Nguyễn Thanh Long informed a meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday.

The first batch comprising over 117,600 doses of the vaccine manufactured in the Republic of Korea (RoK), arrived in Việt Nam on February 24 . After holding working sessions with the producer, Việt Nam has obtained an accreditation certificate for the batch from the RoK.

Long said the doses, verified by the ministry, met the conditions for vaccination in Việt Nam.

On Saturday, the health minister will chair a conference to launch the vaccination plan and provide training for medical staff nationwide in the use and storage of the vaccine, as well as the handling of post-injection complications.

According to the official, priority for vaccination will be given to people at the front line of the fight against COVID-19, including health, army, police, customs and immigration personnel; those working in sectors offering essential services like aviation, transport, tourism and education; people with chronic illnesses or above 65 years old; those living in pandemic-hit areas; the poor and beneficiaries of social welfare.

Those who get the shots will be monitored via digital health records and receive e-certificates for their completion of inoculation.

Five million doses of vaccines, mostly manufactured by AstraZeneca, are expected to be provided to Việt Nam this year through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility programme conducted by the World Health Organization, GAVI, UNICEF and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

Another 25 million doses under this initiative are slated to arrive in Việt Nam next year.

At the meeting of the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said the safety of the vaccination programme should be ensured at the highest level as a task of utmost importance.

“The mass vaccination might have incidents. If we don’t prepare well, the incidents will turn into serious ones,” he told the meeting.

He urged for accelerating the research and production of locally-made vaccines, saying “the process must follow all of the requested steps but must be completed as soon as possible”.

Việt Nam has three local vaccine candidates, one of which has finished the first trial phase with good results and is in the second phase. The other two will enter human trials in the near future.

“If Việt Nam can successfully develop domestic vaccines, we can have enough stocks for the population of 100 million people. According to preliminary information, the COVID-19 vaccine only produces antibodies for a certain time. It is likely that the vaccines must be injected repeatedly every year. This is also an opportunity for Việt Nam’s vaccine study capacity to reach a new level in order to prepare and respond to other diseases that may occur in the future.”

“Vaccines are a long-term solution to control the pandemic globally in six months to one year. In spite of that, we must still strictly follow preventive measures as we have done,” he said.

Đam urged people to maintain their vigilance and asked schools, healthcare facilities, markets, supermarkets and hotels to self assess their safety level and update it on a COVID-19 safety map at antoancovid.vn .

Venues that fail to update the safety level will have their activities suspended, he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister tasked the health ministry, the ministries of foreign affairs, culture, sports and tourism with mapping out plans and creating conditions for those who have been vaccinated in other countries to enter Việt Nam in the coming time while still ensuring safety. — VNS

The intensity of COVID-19 has initially “cooled down” in many nations around the world after the vaccination campaign has been deployed on a large scale. However, in some EU member states the situation remains serious and the EU is struggling to overcome the third wave of the pandemic. Contrary to the trend of easing social distancing, Hungary, France and the Czech Republic are the European countries tending to tighten prevention and control measures as the number of infections has increased recently. Statistics show that, while most Western European countries have recorded a declining or stable number of cases, about 100-200 per one million people per day, the figure is at around 300 in France and more than 600 in the Czech Republic.

French Health Minister Olivier Véran stated that in the next four to six weeks, France will maintain a nightly curfew and lockdown measures such as closing pubs, restaurants and museums, in a bid to protect the pandemic prevention and control efforts. Meanwhile, Gergely Gulyas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, said that Hungary has decided to extend a partial lockdown with infections expected to rise in the next two weeks. He highlighted that the next two weeks will be particularly difficult as the country must cope with the third COVID-19 wave. The Czech Republic and Hungary have taken measures to increase vaccine availability for the COVID-19 vaccination campaign amidst many opinions arguing that the EU’s licensing process is too slow. Relatively strict control measures in response to the pandemic have also been maintained in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently emphasised that Germany is still in the third wave of the pandemic, while a local health official warned that without the maintenance of current measures, the third wave will be extremely difficult, and even uncontrollable.

A major problem currently facing the EU countries is that despite the complicated development of the pandemic, the progress of COVID-19 vaccine coverage in the bloc is quite slow. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen recently stated that 26 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been delivered and 70% of adults in 27 EU countries will be vaccinated by the end of this summer. However, she admitted the failure in the EU’s process of approving and implementing the COVID-19 vaccination program, noting that the bloc has learned lessons about the delay in the licensing of vaccines as well as the overoptimistic psychology of EU officials about the production and delivery progress of vaccines. If compared with the UK, which has left the “European common roof”, the EU’s vaccination progress is disappointing. While the EU is still struggling with the approval and implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination program, in February, about 30% of the UK population was vaccinated, thus creating a positive effect for the country’s important economic sectors.

To combat the pandemic and soon recover the economy, the European Commissioner for Health recently urged countries to speed up vaccination and accelerate the screening and decoding of the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence in service of the more detailed supervision of variants. The “EU family” is also expected to study the proposal for a digital vaccine passport (allowing people with a certificate of vaccination to travel freely) in order to facilitate intra-bloc travel and salvage the upcoming summer tourism season. However, this proposal is still under controversy which shows no sign of coming to an end. Meanwhile, the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon warned the risk of SARS-CoV-2 being likely to persist for a long time despite the slowdown in global infection. According to her, the world needs to prepare for a scenario that the virus will still “stick to” people and experts may have to continue to produce vaccines to prevent the disease, similar to with the seasonal flu.

Given the emergence of more and more new variants of SARS-CoV-2 with a greater danger level, the possibility of having to “co-exist” with COVID-19 is increasing and this is a long-term challenge for the EU as well as for the whole of humanity. This fact is demanding the EU and other countries worldwide to take faster response in pandemic fight and adapt better and more flexibly to soon bring the economy out of the “dark period” caused by the pandemic.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long speaks at an online meeting on March 5

During an online meeting on March 5, Long said it would take a while to gather the vaccine due to high demand and short global supply of the vaccine. The vaccines are also being rapidly produced. Reports from the manufacturers and evaluation boards show that they have protective antibodies against the virus for six months to a year.

“We’ll buy vaccines from other countries while keeping pushing for a locally-made vaccine,” Long said. “This is our long-term plan.”

After receiving the certificate for 117,000 doses of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca on March 3, the ministry will hold a training course about receiving, storing and using the vaccine on March 6 and start giving the vaccine on March 8. The first doses will be given to front line workers at 18 facilities that are treating Covid-19 patients. Afterwards, the people in the outbreak areas in 13 cities and provinces will be vaccinated.

Nguyen Dac Vinh, Deputy Chief of the Office of the Party Central Committee, said even with the vaccine, all preventive measures will still be upheld to limit both community and imported cases.

“The Ministry of Health will be the only agency that manages and distribute the vaccine. Localities will not be allowed to negotiate to buy vaccine with private firms,” Vinh said.

At the meeting, the Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control urged to implement the immunisation programme under the vaccine equity principle of the UN. The public will be informed about the programme.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said, “We have been doing well without the vaccine before so in the coming time, everyone must stay vigilant and active.”