Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of HCMC Duong Anh Duc speaks at the meeting. (Photo: SGGP)
The statement was made at a virtual conference held by the HCMC Steering Committee for Covid-19 prevention and control on August 13 with the participation of Standing Deputy Secretary of HCMC's Party Committee, Phan Van Mai and Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of HCMC Duong Anh Duc.
There simply have not been enough vaccines to meet the overwhelming global demand. The municipal authorities have made every effort but the vaccine may not arrive in the city in October.
In addition, the city has proposed the Ministry of Health to allocate more Covid-19 vaccines to HCMC, exploited one million doses of Vero Cell vaccines produced by China’s Sinopharm that arrived in HCMC on July 31 and tried to take advantage of every opportunity and various sources to purchase additional doses of vaccine for people, said Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc.
As of present, HCMC run out of the Covid-19 vaccine doses allocated by the Ministry of Health. A total of more than 4.3 million people have been vaccinated, including over 100,000 people having fully got two shots.
Regarding to five million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee said that it is a nonprofit model that allows enterprises to actively negotiate to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate their employees and donate vaccines to the city instead of donating money to the Covid-19 vaccine fund.
According to Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of HCMC Duong Anh Duc, the city has averagely recorded 3,687 confirmed cases of Covid-19 per day from August 5 to present, 78.6 percent of the number of cases found in blocked sites, 2.3 percent in quarantine facilities and 17.7 percent via screening tests in hospitals.
The city’s total number of over 68,900 patients has been given the all-clear. Among 32,000 patients under treatment, there are 1,558 severe patients and 16 patients at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.
10,420 F0 cases without symptoms are being treated at home and 12,200 F0 cases have spent seven days for treatment. The average Covid-19 death toll in the city is 241 people a day.
The municipal authorities have focused on strengthening treatment of severe Covid-19 patients to reduce mortality, built plans for the prevention and control of the pandemic from August 15- September 15. The city's authorities will make all efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic prior to September 15, he added.
In addition, the identification and isolation of F0 cases in blocked areas have to be carried out soon.
Hospitals in the 2nd and 3rd floor of the model of 5-storey treatment pyramid have been upgraded to the next level for an effective performance in classifying and treating in Covid-19 treatment facilities in HCMC.
Fully vaccinated people will still get infected. No vaccine offers full protection to everyone who receives it, noted Ph.D, Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau.
Besides measures of social distancing, quarantine and the health ministry’s 5K message of facemask, disinfection, social distancing, no gathering, and health declaration, high and effective immunization coverage rate will help reduce new cases, severe patients and mortality in Covid-19 patients.
The Covid-19 treatment facilities in HCMC are organized according to the model of 5-storey pyramid.
