Undoubtedly, Vietnamese people can be proud of the society’s collective success in combating Covid-19 outbreak (less than 300 confirmed cases and no death after three months since the first confirmed case). Newspaper reports have attributed Vietnam’s success to many things including Government’s decisive and consistent policy, comprehensive quarantine and contact tracing, and high-level of awareness and cooperation by Vietnamese people. However, not much has been said about the legal framework that underpins Vietnam’s success. In this post, we will describe the legal framework which deals with infectious disease and epidemic such as Covid-19 in Vietnam. This post is written by Nguyen Hoang Duy and edited by Nguyen Quang Vu.

Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007

The Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007 was issued by the National Assembly in 2007. Laws issued in Vietnam are not always perfect. However, the fact that there is a law issued by the highest authority in Vietnam about pandemic a long time ago (probably after the SARS outbreak in 2003) demonstrates that Vietnam has given serious thought about how to deal with a pandemic.

Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease 2007 regulates, among other things:

· the state’s policies in the prevention and control of infectious disease;

· the relevant competent authorities;

· actions to be taken to prevent infectious disease (including information, education and communication on the prevention and control of infectious disease; preventative hygiene; monitor of infectious disease; biology safety in testing; compulsory and voluntary usage of vaccine and medical biological product in disease prevention; prevention of spread of infectious disease in medical unit);

· border medical quarantine; and

· actions to be taken to control infectious disease (including epidemic declaration, emergency state declaration, epidemic control measures, human resource and financial source for epidemic control).

Government authorities dealing with infectious disease

Under Decree 75/2017, the Ministry of Health (the MOH) has the following responsibilities when dealing with infectious disease, among other things:

· monitor, prevent and control infectious disease. The monitoring includes early detecting infectious disease causing epidemic and tracking public medical issues worldwide to organize prevention and control;

· issue, amend and supplement the list of infectious disease which subject to compulsory use of vaccine/medical biological product and organize such use for the subjective subject to such use;

· direct and guide the appraisal of health impact assessment report of investment project of infectious disease examination and treatment facility; and

· other responsibilities relating to preventative health care.

The MOH also sets up the Department on Preventative Health Care which main functions is to deal with infectious diseases. In particular, the Department on Preventative Health Care has the following authorities when dealing with infectious diseases, among other things:

· prevent and control infectious disease in general;

· manage the list of infectious disease;

· monitor and early detect infectious disease and its cause;

· manage the data and act as the contact point providing information relating to infectious disease; and

· guide and supervise the implementation of the reporting and informing regime relating to infectious disease and manage the status of infectious disease nationwide.

Other implementing regulations of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease 2007

In addition to the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease 2007, the Government and the MOH have also issued comprehensive implementing regulations which help to put the law into practice. In particular,

· Decree 101 of the Government dated 30 September 2010 on the application of medical isolation, enforcement of medical isolation and specific anti-epidemic measure during the epidemic period (Decree 101/2010). Decree 101/2010 regulates the following main issues: (i) detailed level of medical isolation (including cases of application, deciding authority, steps and locations, preliminary measure to enforcement and enforcement of medical isolation); and (ii) specific anti-epidemic measures (including suspension and prohibition of specific types of business, prohibition of crowding activities, suspension of business in general in epidemic zone);

· Decree 103 of the Government dated 1 July 2016 on biosafety in laboratories (Decree 103/2016). Decree 103/2016 regulates the following main issues: (i) classification of microorganisms according to risky category; (ii) classification of testing facilities according to biosafety level and requirement for each safety level and relevant procedures of certification; and (iii) prevention and dealing with biosafety incidents;

· Decree 89 of the Government dated 25 June 2018 on border medical quarantine (Decree 89/2018). Decree 89/2019 regulates the following main issues: (i) medical declaration applicable to person entering into or exiting from Vietnam; (ii) medical quarantine measures applicable to humans, vehicles, goods, corpses, remains, microorganism samples, biological products, tissues and human body organs; and (iii) organization and operation of state’s body relating to medical quarantine;

· Decree 176 of the Government dated 14 November 2013 on administrative sanctions in the medical sector (Decree 176/2013). Decree 176/2013 includes administrative sanctions applicable to violation relating to the activities in the prevention and control of infectious disease. The administrative sanctions include monetary fines and enforcement of regulations in prevention and control of infectious disease;

· Joint Circular 16 of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) dated 27 May 2013 guiding the co-operation to prevent and control infectious diseases which transmitting from animal to human (Joint Circular 16). Joint Circular 16 regulates the activities to monitor the infectious disease which transmitting from animal to human, the information sharing between state agencies, and the responsibility to co-operate of different state agencies in preventing and controlling of infectious disease;

· Circular 18 of the MOH dated 1 July 2013 on location, design, condition of facility, technique and equipment of infectious disease examination and treatment unit (Circular 18/2013);

· Circular 54 of the MOH dated 28 December 2015 guiding the informing and reporting regime, declaration of infectious disease and epidemic (Circular 54/2015). Circular 54/2015 regulates the following main issues: (i) the information which must be reported and the reporting responsibility (for dangerous infectious disease, the reporting is applicable to each case of patient and the report must be done within 24 hours from the time of the disease diagnosis of such patient); (ii) the form of the report and the reporting procedures; and (iii) the responsibility of relevant state agencies;

· Circular 38 of the MOH dated 17 October 2017 issuing the list of infectious disease, scope and person subject to compulsory use of vaccine and medical biological product (Circular 38/2017). Circular 38/2017 mostly deals with the vaccination for children. In addition, for people at epidemic zone or going to epidemic zone, the MOH will have the authority to determine who subject to compulsory use of vaccine and medical biological product;

· Circular 40 of the MOH dated 7 December 2018 on the management of patient sample of infectious disease (Circular 40/2018). This Circular provides detailed classification of infectious material following United Nations documents and the detailed steps to collect, preserve, pack, label, transport, use and destroy patient sample;

· Decision 2 of the Prime Minister dated 28 January 2016 on the conditions to declare epidemic outbreak and epidemic end of infectious disease (Decision 2). Decision 2 regulates the conditions and procedures to declare epidemic outbreak and end;

· Circular 17 of the MOH dated 17 July 2019 relating to monitoring and responding to infectious disease and epidemic (Circular 17/2019). Circular 17/2019 regulates the following main issues: (i) the person and object subject to the monitoring, the form, location, content and procedure of monitoring; and (ii) the activities responding to the infectious disease and epidemic, which include activities to prevent, prepare and control the infectious disease and epidemic;

· Circular 41 of the MOH dated 14 November 2016 issuing the list of microorganisms causing infectious disease under risk category and biosafety level suitable for their testing methods (Circular 41/2016);

· Circular 37 of the MOH dated 25 September 2017 on biosafety in laboratories (Circular 37/2017). Circular 37/2017 regulates the good practice to ensure the biosafety in laboratories working with microorganism bearing the risk of spreading infectious disease to human and patient sample which may contains such microorganism; and

· Circular 28 of the MOH dated 28 October 2019 guiding the informing and reporting in border medical quarantine (Circular 28/2019). Circular 28/2019 provides in detail the agencies which must report/inform relating to border medical quarantine, and the regularity, form, content and procedure of the reporting and informing activities.

Vietnam Business Law

Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 2007

Government authorities dealing with infectious disease

Other implementing regulations of the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease 2007