Military regions’ armed forces are the core forces in performing military and defence tasks as well as handling and overcoming the consequences of incidents, natural disasters, epidemics, and searching and rescuing in the area. From the practice of preventing and eliminating the Covid-19 pandemic and the unpredictable potential risks of current epidemics, it is necessary to thoroughly study the organisation and use of military regions’ armed forces in handling the epidemics.

Vietnam is located in a tropical monsoon climate zone which is hot and humid, with a lot of rain, along with the increasing demand for trade and tourism. Thus, there is a high risk of spreading and outbreaks of various epidemics. Dealing with epidemics is an important political task - the task of "fighting in peacetime" of the entire army, including the armed forces of military regions. These are on-site forces that always grasp the situation and operate stably in the area. Therefore, these forces are identified as the core forces in coordinating with local Party committees, authorities, departments, branches, organisations and other forces to handle and overcome the consequences of the epidemics right from the grassroots level. In particular, when an epidemic occurs, especially an infectious disease that can spread quickly and threaten the lives and health of the people, the role of military region's armed forces in comprehensively implementing timely measures to prevent and control the epidemic are even more important. Obviously, the organisation and use of forces in a reasonable, strict and scientific manner is a decisive issue in promoting the combined strength to improve the quality and effectiveness of preventing and controlling epidemics.

Sr. Lt. Gen. Vo Minh Luong, Deputy Minister of National Defence present the First-class Feat of Arms Medal for armed forces of Military Region 7

Currently, handling non-traditional security challenges in general and epidemics, in particular, is an important content in civil defence activities. This work is under the comprehensive leadership and direction of the Party, the unified management of the Government, directly the leadership and direction of Party committees at all levels, the management and operation of authorities at all levels and the heads of agencies and organisations. From that process and under the direction of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of National Defence, the military regions and their affiliated units from the regimental level and above must organise steering committees for disease prevention and control, directly advising the Party committees and commanders at the same level to lead and direct this pivotal activity. At the same time, they must direct local military agencies to advise Party committees and authorities to establish steering committees at each level as required.

Due to the complex and unpredictable nature of the epidemics, the military regions must direct units to plan the composition and scale of the steering committees for disease prevention and control at all levels and develop operating regulations, working relationships of the steering committees, etc. This is the basis for the steering committees for epidemic prevention and control at all levels, first of all at the military region level, to be established and operate immediately after the epidemic is announced. To operate effectively and efficiently, the steering committees at the military region level ought to include the following members: the deputy commanders of the military regions in charge of logistics as heads of the committees; the deputy chiefs of staff of the military regions, the deputy heads of politics, deputy heads of logistics, deputy heads of technics of the military regions as deputy heads of the committees and commanders of agencies and units as committees’ members. The steering committees for epidemic prevention and control at the military region level shall act as an advisory board for the standing committees of the Party Committees, the military regions’ commands and be the centre for coordination and cooperation with the Party Committees and authorities of the provinces and cities in the area to lead and direct epidemic prevention and control activities. At the same time, these committees should quickly develop and promulgate working regulations, establish support teams which are headed by deputy heads of logistics of the military regions. The working groups advise and propose the implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures in the military regions, help the steering committees issue documents, handle information on the epidemic, summarise the situations and reports as required by the steering committees. In addition, they are supposed to strengthen coordination with government agencies, the Ministry of Health, the Steering Committees for Epidemic Prevention and Control of the Ministry of National Defence; direct professional work, advise the military region's steering committees on the implementation of military-civilian medical cooperation, select diagnostic facilities, develop plans for transporting and providing emergency care to patients; conduct inspections of epidemic prevention and control work in the area. Based on the specific situations of the epidemics, the military regions can establish military region-level response command committees and direct the establishment to the district level with the appropriate and sufficient composition according to Decree No. 02/2019/ND-CP of the Government on Civil Defence. During the operation, the military regions’ steering committees directly lead the activities of disease prevention and control in the entire military region according to the plan of the Government, the National Steering Committee, the Ministry of National Defence Steering Committee and the guidance of the Ministry of Health; direct the synchronous implementation of response measures for each level of the epidemic, both ensuring the requirements of disease prevention and control tasks and ensuring the completion of military and national defence tasks according to their functions and tasks. In fact, in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic, Military Region 7 issued Decision No. 779/QD-BTL, dated 20 March 2020, establishing the Military Region 7 Civil Defence Provisional Command (Command Committee to handle the pandemic), including the following members: Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Military Region as Head of the Committee; Deputy Commander of the Military Region in charge of logistics as Standing Deputy Head of the Committee; Deputy Political Commissar of the Military Region and Permanent Vice Chairmen of the People's Committees of provinces and cities as Deputy Heads of the Committee and members (Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of operations; Heads of Politics, Logistics, and Technics of the Military Region; Chief of Defence Inspectorate; Commander of the Ho Chi Minh City Command; Commander of the Military Command, Commander of the Border Guard; representatives of the Board of Directors of the Public Security, Department of Health of provinces and cities), ensuring sufficient capacity to effectively command the prevention and control of the epidemic.

Leader of Military Region 7 checks the Covid-19 checkpoint

Along with organising a system of steering committees for disease prevention and control and command committees for disease response, military regions need to organise forces to handle epidemics at all levels. These forces should be organised based on the forces of the military medical departments of the military regions; the medical departments of divisions, provinces and cities; the military medical brigades; the preventive medicine systems (preventive medicine teams and epidemic prevention teams of units); the supply systems including drug and equipment warehouses (military medical sub-warehouses/military warehouses, provincial, city, division, brigade, regiment hospitals); the treatment facility systems (military and civilian hospitals; hospitals of provinces and cities; infirmaries of divisions, brigades and regiments; clinics, military and civilian medical centres, etc.). The local forces should be directed by the military command of the provinces and cities, each district uses one standing militia platoon and is ready to mobilise mobile militia platoons, companies, regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons; the districts and towns should direct each commune and ward to use one standing militia platoon to perform the task of coordinating the protection of targets and participating in epidemic prevention and control. For the mobile forces, the military region uses the forces of the regiments of the main division; the brigades and battalions of the affiliated arms carry out the task of blocking important traffic junctions, preventing people and vehicles from traveling between epidemic areas; patrolling, propagating and mobilising people to strictly comply with regulations on epidemic prevention and control; transporting food, provisions, etc. Regarding the forces participating in the coordination, the military region directs localities and units to use the remaining forces to participate in the task of epidemic prevention and control based on the epidemic situation in the area, combines with training and being ready to mobilise to protect the safety of the unit. Accordingly, along with using the regular army and militia forces, it is necessary to focus on mobilising and organising the use of reserve forces to effectively implement the "4 on-site" motto in epidemic prevention and control. However, to improve the capacity to handle local epidemics, localities must pay special attention to the management, training, and mobilisation of these forces. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to the use of reserve forces (engineers, chemicals, etc.) those are equipped with technical means to serve the handling of a number of situations at epidemic levels, ensuring that these forces are organised and commanded tightly, creating a basis for rapid mobilisation to carry out tasks in the event of a rapid and difficult-to-control epidemic. Ensuring logistics plays a particularly important role in epidemic prevention and control; therefore, the use of logistics forces needs to be taken into consideration scientifically. Accordingly, even before the outbreak of the epidemic, the military region should direct the logistics departments, agencies and units to review their capabilities, advise leaders and commanders to develop plans (schemes) to establish infectious disease field hospitals (the entire military region can deploy 03-04 hospitals), with a scale of 300 to 500 beds/hospital with sufficient logistics facilities and equipment in terms of quantity and quality. To meet the high requirements in epidemic prevention and control, the units performing tasks in areas with strong outbreaks need to coordinate with the forces of the Ministry of Health, the health sector of defence zones of provinces and cities must send officers from the logistics departments with qualifications and experiences to directly command the activities. Due to the high demand for quantity and qualifications, the medical staff of the units must consult and select a number of soldiers who are high school graduates or higher and a number of professional soldiers to conduct training and establish a force of "hygiene soldiers" to participate in serving at medical isolation points, infirmaries, and hospitals. At the same time, forces need to be organised to ensure food and drink (dining room staff, kitchen staff; food supply force; food supply, etc.) to serve patients at hospitals, infirmaries, and quarantine areas. The barrack sectors of units should strengthen forces to meet the requirements of epidemic concentration, ensuring food, accommodation, and living in epidemic conditions and social distancing to prevent and control. Along with that, use the transportation force of agencies and units (with reserve and replacement forces); in which the focus is on preparing means suitable for transportation requirements (airplanes, cars, ships, boats, etc.), meeting the needs of transporting a large number of patients and medical equipment, necessities, etc. when the epidemic breaks out on a large scale. When required, organisations, agencies, units, and enterprises (hospitals, post offices, Red Cross, Youth Unions, Youth Volunteer Organizations, units, construction companies, etc.) can be mobilised.

Organising and using the armed forces of the military regions to handle the epidemics is an important content, deciding the success of the task of preventing and eliminating the epidemic occurred in the area. This is only the initial research, which needs to be further promoted in the coming time, in order to continuously improve the effectiveness of organising and using forces in performing this important task, spreading the beautiful image of "Uncle Ho's soldiers" in the new period.

Lieutenant General NGUYEN TRUONG THANG, Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the Central Military Commission, Commander of Military Region 7