The inverted pyramid strategy helps Canada respond to Covid-19

Canada recently emerged as a new model in the fight against Covid-19, when the country accelerated its vaccination campaign, which had a relatively slow start, to become one of the countries with the highest vaccination rate.

Eighty per cent of vaccine-eligible people aged 12 and older in Canada have received at least one dose of vaccine, while 57 per cent have completed vaccination, according to Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer.

In an article sent to VnExpress, Nguyen Dang Anh Thi, an energy and environment expert of a department of education in the Vancouver metropolitan area, Canada, said that when Covid-19 broke out in March 2020, the British Columbia government (

Accordingly, essential sectors such as electricity and water, supermarkets, grocery stores, pharmacies and public transportation are maintained but must ensure a distance of 2 meters between people.

The BC government also asked people not to gather more than 50 people.

Exactly 50 days later, the `BC Restart Plan` was announced by the provincial government, outlining four stages to overcome the pandemic based on a model that forecasts the number of infections under different scenarios until there is a new pandemic.

According to this plan, the Ministry of Health coordinates with the BC WorkSafe Agency (WorkSafeBC) to issue a handbook guiding safe operations in the `new normal` conditions for schools, manufacturing, businesses, and more.

Mr. Thi said that Canada and Western countries consider Covid-19 a danger or risk that threatens people’s safety from a scientific perspective.

This strategy includes a hierarchy of solutions to control Covid-19 at the workplace in an inverted pyramid shape, including 4 groups of solutions with effectiveness from high to low.

Hierarchical system of Covid-19 control solution groups in the workplace.

At the forefront of this group of solutions is `eliminating the hazard`, with the motto `If you’re sick, stay home.`

This is a screening step to recommend that people with symptoms or exposure to Covid-19 stay home to limit the spread of disease to others and contact health authorities for treatment.

Self-isolation is one of the most effective solutions to minimize the spread of the virus.

In Canada, the government placed faith in people’s self-awareness and applied self-isolation at home from the early days of the epidemic.

`Last year, my neighbor named Vivian suddenly disappeared for more than ten days, while her husband and children always wore masks on the street and deliberately stood far away from us. Later we found out, Vivian was infected with Covid-19, must have

Covid-19 testing is available and free to everyone in Canada, but health authorities do not recommend widespread testing.

`I also took the survey a few times when I had headaches and dizziness and the assessment results did not recommend me to get tested. I found it quite accurate because up to now I have always been safe,` he said.

Ranked second in the `inverted pyramid` strategy is the group of technical solutions to separate the source of infection.

At the production site, walls are installed to separate workers.

`The most important thing is to wash your hands regularly and keep a distance of 2 meters from people around you,` Mr. Thi added.

Third is a group of administrative solutions to limit contact.

`At my department of education last school year, reducing student density at school was done by dividing into small groups to alternate online and in-class learning,` Anh Thi said.

The fourth group of solutions is to use personal protective equipment, including cloth masks.

`By applying the above prevention and mitigation strategies, our department of nearly 500 people still works effectively without a single case of infection. Until the vaccine is deployed to people in the education sector.

People lined up waiting to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in Coquitlam, British Columbia province at the end of April. Photo: CBC.

Across the province of British Columbia with more than half a million students, 36 thousand teachers and nearly 2,000 schools, the Covid-19 infection rate in schools is less than 1%, only one-third the rate of the entire province.

Mr. Thi said Vietnam was one of the best epidemic-fighting countries in the world last year, but is facing a serious outbreak.