Tran Trong Hung, Head of the Commission of the Vietnamese Polish for Covid-19 Support, Prevention and Control, shared the experience to use the three ‘lifebuoy rings’ in the fight against Covid-19 there: thorough prevention – immediate control – promptly emergency.
The first motto means frequent hand washing, social distance keeping, facemask wearing, and gathering avoidance.
As to the second, when typical symptoms like high fever, coughing, breathing difficulty, and headache happen, the person should contact medical help at once for Covid-19 test. In Poland, the app Pulso Care Doctor is used by the government to monitor infected people over 55 years old staying at home. Covid-19 patients are also encouraged to practice breathing in Yoga lessons and regularly open windows for fresh air flows. These actions are to improve the immune system since the disease can turn worse rather quickly.
Promptly emergency means to call for an ambulance right when a patient feels difficult to breathe (oxygen level < 91), or when the heartbeat is too fast or too slow, making the body extremely tired.
Mr. Hung mentioned that emergency hotlines must be established to deliver timely guidance for the community when in medical trouble in order to minimize deaths.
Each household is advised to prepare necessary medicines, a pulse oximeter, a thermometer, and a sphygmomanometer. With them and professional medical aid, patients staying at home can have a better chance to recover from the disease. Therefore, Mr. Hung suggested that charity groups or the Government can present these useful equipment kinds to senior people in HCMC.
Vice Chairman of the Business Association Of Overseas Vietnamese (BAOOV) Danny Vo, from Singapore agreed and reported that 6 months ago, Singapore delivered a free pulse oximeter to each household in that country.
Many overseas Vietnamese gave positive comments on the application of social distance rules, saying that with the support of essential commodities from the authorities, this decision is an effective method to control the outbreak.
Dr. Vo Toan Trung from France insisted on the importance of F0 tracking and quick Covid-19 test, along with social distance rules in order to halt the spread of the virus and reduce the workload on the medical staff.
Dr. Nguyen Duc Thai from the US said that since the Delta variant is more dangerous, the organization and application of old test techniques seem less effective. He recommended the super sensitive PCR test method by Dr. Ho Huu Tho from Vietnam Military Medical University.
This technique delivers precise results even with a pool test of 100 samples, which means HCMC can save costs and time when performing the test for a large quantity of dwellers. The newly built high-capacity test lab now can run tests for 10,000 samples a day and up to the maximum of 100,000 samples when necessary.
In the end of the meeting, Vice Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee Duong Anh Duc expressed his appreciation to all the care and valuable opinions of overseas Vietnamese people all over the world. He hoped that they could continue to fight side by side with HCMC, via supports in vaccine and medical equipment purchasing.
