HANOI, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has recognized the novel coronavirus disease or COVID-19 as an occupational disease for greater protection for people working in health care and other jobs that carry a higher risk of exposure to the disease, the Vietnamese health ministry said on Friday.

Workers in six groups of occupations, who have contracted COVID-19 at their workplace, are able to make social insurance claims, acquiring specific rights according to national rules, according to a ministry circular to be effective from April 1.

These workers are medical personnel in health facilities; laboratory staff involved in taking, transporting, handling, conserving and destroying SARS-CoV-2 testing samples; professionals in quarantine facilities and at-home isolation, medical workers in the pandemic-affected areas; and others engaged in the transportation, preservation, cremation and burial of COVID-19 victims.

In addition, other sectors where workers may be at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 due to the nature of their activities, included investigators, diplomats, customs officers, immigration officers, police officers, army soldiers, civil servants, and others participating in pandemic prevention and control.

Those diagnosed with COVID-19 between Feb. 1, 2020 and April 1, 2023, are eligible for medical evaluation of occupational diseases. Their recognition and compensation are in line with current rules.

COVID-19 has infected 11,526,627 in Vietnam since the beginning of the pandemic, placing the country at the 13th place among 230 countries and territories, with 116,485 cases per million people on average, the Ministry of Health said on its website.

The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Vietnam is recorded at 43,186, accounting for 0.4 percent of the total number of infections, it added. Enditem

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