Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son is touched at looking at babies while visiting the H.O.P.E center (Photo: SGGP)
According to Dr. Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, Director of Hung Vuong Hospital, out of nearly 1,000 pregnant women that Hung Vuong Hospital has been admitted from April 2021 until now, 500 of them infected by Covid-19 have given birth at the hospital.
Fortunately, just one percent of their children were infected by Covid-19.
Because of the complicated developments of the epidemic, the southern metropolis has been implementing social distancing according to Directive 16, mothers infected with Covid-19 are forced to be isolated or treated, so more babies were born without caretakers by their side day by day.
Currently, Hung Vuong Hospital is taking care of 130 children whose mothers have Covid-19, with more than 50 children can be discharged from the hospital, but no relatives have come to pick them up, some of them even are almost one month old but still in the hospital, said Dr. Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet.
Due to the possibility of the hospital’s newborn overload, managers of Hung Vuong Hospital decided to establish the H.O.P.E Center following the direction of the Ministry of Health and the municipal People's Committee. Within a week, thanks to the help of the People's Committee in District 5, dozens of children were brought to the center for further care.
The H.O.P.E Center expected to take care of babies in the first weeks after birth without mothers and families by their side.
Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said that he was touched at looking at babies while visiting the H.O.P.E center. He expressed his gratitude to HCMC authorities and the Department of Health that have helped Hung Vuong Hospital to set up the center.
The Deputy Minister of Health also sent his thank-you to teachers of Hoa Mi Preschool, the managing board of Hung Vuong Hospital, and the city Women Union for organizing the center.
He stressed that the southern metropolis and neighboring provinces will have more solutions to take care of babies, especially those whose mothers were infected by the coronavirus.
Medical workers are taking care of newborn babies at the center (Photo: SGGP)
