Make sense of the 'New Normal'

​A business located in Long Thanh District has maintained its production and pandemic prevention.

In order to adapt and develop in this new period, it is necessary for the people to properly understand the 'new normal' state, thereby correctly implementing, limiting the subjectivity, neglecting that could increase the spread epidemic in the community.

Doctor PHAN HUY ANH VU, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Health said: "The new normal" is not really “normal”.

The "new normal" is not really “normal”. It is a social state that the people should be adaptive to safely "living with" the epidemic. Many activities have become normal again, but more attention must be paid to control and prevent the epidemic; not all activities are allowed to conduct as they used to be before the epidemic happened.

If you want to adapt safely to the new situation, you must be proactive and flexible in order to be able to control the disease in the most effective way. Only by this way, we can perform well the dual goals, protect people’s health and lives as well as boost the production.

Implementing the "new normal" so that people’s lives could avoid the difficulties; people can work and live normally. In case we do not perform well the measures of Covid-19 pandemic prevention, it will break out more strongly. Currently, the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet ended, the new variants of the virus have been found in the world, the possibility of new pandemic waves has predicted to be high.

In order to safely adapt to the "new normal", the awareness of each citizen and the community is extremely important and being one of the decisive factors. Every citizen still has to strictly comply with the State's regulations on epidemic prevention and control, especially the 5K principle (face masks, disinfection, no gatherings, health declarations, distancing) of the Ministry of Health. Don't be too subjective, or too afraid then hesitating to enhance the production when condition is safe enough. Therefore, it is necessary to properly understand the concept of "new normal" to take the right action and participate well, effectively, and safely into the new normal.

Mr. VU VAN CHIEU - Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Nai Ward (Bien Hoa City): Raising the individual awareness for the community safety  

It would be a mistake to understand the "new normal" as normal as before, and then be subjective and neglectful in epidemic prevention. The carefree behavior of gathering, contacting, organizing kinds of parties in the recent time has been one of the causes increasing in F0 cases in the community.

It should be understood that, entering the "new normal" meaning that the people have to change to adapt to new living conditions. It is necessary to get rid of old inappropriate habits, and at the same time maintain good habits such as: wearing masks, washing hands and disinfecting, not gathering in crowds, keeping a distance when communicating, making medical declarations. In addition, monitoring the epidemic spread level in the location where you are living, and the destinations that you go to, and well complying with the province's regulations on Covid-19 disease prevention for the safety of yourself and the community.

It should be recognized more clearly about the role of each individual in the community. Each individual is an important 'link in the chain' which can affect relationships in social life. The pandemic does not ignore anyone, and whoever could be a source of the epidemic spread if he or she is subjective and neglectful in preventing and controlling the disease.

To be able to adapt well to the "new normal", people's awareness is very important. Maintaining a steady state of mind in the "new normal" means removing the subjective, lethargic, and off-guard mentality. The important thing now is to be ready and face calmly the new challenges caused by the pandemic.

Mr. LE BACH LONG, Director of Nam Long Company Limited (Long An Commune, Long Thanh District): Reorganizing the production for adaptation

At a time when the epidemic is still everywhere, the "new normal" means "living with the epidemic", adapting to the evolution of the epidemic, and making the most of the time and safety to accomplish the set goals can be achieved.

Currently, businesses have to change the way they organize the production because everything fluctuates according to the epidemic such as raw materials, markets, human resources to costs, etc. However, generally, we also see that the epidemic will be controlled, the situation will gradually become normal like other diseases happened in the past. Hence, in the recent situation, businesses must have a plan to "live with" the epidemic.

The direction for businesses to adapt to the current new situation is that each business must be very dynamic, flexible, and managed with a new mindset to capture and create development opportunities. In particular, it is necessary to change the methods of production organization, automation, powerful digital transformation, to reduce costs and increase the businesses’ competitiveness.

At the same time, the company accepts to have Covid-19 cases of F0 in the factory, accept the higher costs, diversify sources of supply, diversify customers in terms of geography, regions, area, etc. to prevent the disruption of the supply chains and markets of products. The company has been focused on taking care the employees’ health, workers’ wellbeing, creating peace of mind, staying together so as not to avoid the production chain disruption.

Ms. LE THI HUYEN (Song Thao Commune, Trang Bom District): Adjusting for adaptation and development

After the period of social distancing to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic, most people in the area are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 so it is appropriate for many activities to return to the "new normal" state. In my opinion, this change is like we are entering a new phase, forced to change, adjust habits to adapt to the epidemic situation and development.

There are many things that we once considered normal, but now have to change. For example, in the past, when going out, many people did not wear masks, or wore masks for the purpose of sun protection, now everyone must wear masks when going out or going to work with the main purpose of preventing the epidemic. Previously, carefree gathering of friends, having fun, eating, participating in other social activities, etc., now it is necessary to limit, keep a distance, consider the safety factor of epidemic prevention according to the regulations. All activities on economic fields, society, production, consumption taste, education, activities in daily life have become more digitized when the society status takes the mode of "new normal". Whenever the epidemic has not been completely controlled, all activities have to be implemented in the safe medical aspect and follow the methods appropriate to living conditions with the epidemic. Currently, the number of Covid-19 infections in the community is on the rise, which shows that the epidemic prevention work of each citizen has not been well performed. Therefore, it is required that each individual pay more attention in good practice of regulations and solutions to prevent epidemic.

Nhat Huy