It will function at the Authority of Information Technology Application, whose deputy head, Do Cong Anh, has been named its director, and use the latter’s staff instead of recruiting its own.

The center will coordinate with official agencies and businesses to have them jointly support and cooperate in applying technologies to fight the pandemic.

It will design, develop, manage, operate, and monitor network security solutions for anti-pandemic technology platforms and systems.

It will also gather, manage and distribute electronic medical declaration data, quarantine data, public feedback, and control access at Covid checkpoints.

Other tasks include developing and acquiring technologies for Covid prevention and control.

Vietnam has been using a number of applications to serve the Covid fight, including the Vietnam Health Declaration app, Bluezone and NCOVI.

These mobile apps help users submit medical declarations and record close contact between app users and visits to public locations among other tasks.

Data on people related to coronavirus control measures would be deleted after a month, the Ministry of Information of Communications said.

Information minister Nguyen Manh Hung said last week that technological solutions, including contact tracing and medical declaration apps, are a vital part of Vietnam's Covid fight along with testing and vaccination.

Also last week the ministry warned that people using smartphones without contact tracing apps in crowded places could be "punished," though it did not specify the punishment.

Six weeks into its fourth and latest wave, Vietnam has had 5,666 infections in 39 of its 63 cities and provinces.

Viet Tuan